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AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



PENNSYLVANIA; 



KM BRACING 

A Succinct History of Agricultural Education in Europe and America, to- 
gether with the circumstances of the Origin, Rise and Progress of 
the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania; as also a State- 
ment of the Present Condition, Aims and Prospects 
of this Institution, its Course of Instruction, 
Facilities for Study, Terms of Ad- 
mission, &c. &c. 



DRAWN UP BY A COMMITTEE 

APPOINTED FOR THIS PURPOSE BY THE BOARD OP TRUSTEES. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 
^ WILLIAM S YOUNG, PRINTER, NO. 52 NORTH SIXTH STREET. £ 

1862. 




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THE 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



PENNSYLVANIA; 



EMBRACING 



A Succinct History of Agricultural Education in Europe and America, to- 
gether with the circumstances of the Origin, Kise and Progress of 
the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania; as also a State- 
ment of the Present Condition, Aims and Prospects 
of this Institution, its Course of Instruction, 
Facilities for Study, Terms of Ad- 
mission, &c. &c. 



DRAWN UP BY A COMMITTEE 

APPOINTED FOR THIS PURPOSE BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 



itPYtMtlL 



©!)&♦ 



PHILADELPHIA: 
WILLIAM S. YOUNG, PRINTER, NO. 52 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 

1862. 






4 

Afl 12 '•» \ ! 



CONTENTS 



Historical. 

Agricultural Education in Europe, 

Thaer's School, ...... 

Pestalozzi's System of Combining Manual Labor and Study, 

Eecent Progress of Agricultural Educational Institutions, 
Agricultural Education in America, 

Agricultural Education in New York, 

Michigan — Massachusetts — Maryland, 

Iowa — Minnesota — Illinois — Ohio — Agricultural Professorship 
The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, 

Agricultural Societies in Pennsylvania, 

Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, 

Origin of Agricultural Education, 

Kind of Agricultural Schools Wanted, 

Origin of the State Agricultural Society, 

An Agricultural School, 

The Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, 

Act of Incorporation, 

Report on Plan of Organizing a School, 

A Call for Offers of a Site for the School, 

An Offer of a Site by Judge Miles, 

Meeting of the Executive Board, 

Organization of the Board of Trustees, 

Sites Offered, 

Report of Committee to Examine Sites, 

Final Vote on the Location of the School, 

Solicitation of aid from the State, . 

Plans for College Buildings, 

Contract to Erect College Buildings, 

First Annual Meeting of Delegates, 

Appropriation by the State Legislature, 

A Large Meeting of Delegates, 

Financial Difficulties, 

Contractor unable to fulfil his Contract, 

Embarrassment of the Board, 



9 
9 

11 
12 

13 
13 
13 
13 
11 
15 
16 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
23 
24 
24 
25 
27 
28 
28 
28 
28 
29 
30 
33 
34 
35 



IV. 



CONTENTS. 



The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. 

Prospect of Failure, 

Opening School, ... 

Faculty for 1860, ,. 

Final Appeal to the State Legislature, 

Completion of the College Buildings,. 

Change of Name, . . . . 

Object of the Institution, .... 

The Collece as it will be in Operation next year, 1863, 
Buildings,. ...... 

Course of Studies, ..... 

Course for Graduates, .... 

Auxiliaries to Study, ..... 

The Full Course, .... 

Partial Scientific and Practical Course, 
Practical Course, .... 

Special Peculiarities and Advantages of the Course, 

Conditions, and Form of Admission, 

Expenses, ....... 

Location, ..... 

Farming Material, ..... 

Keaping Machines, .... 



36 
37 
38 
39 
42 
43 
45 
49 
49 
51 
52 
53 
55 
56 
56 
56 
58 
58 
59 
60 
60 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 



& 

The idea of educational institutions especially devoted 
to agriculture and the industrial arts, is of comparatively 
modern origin. Among ancient authors we find several 
very respectable attempts to lay down rules for agricultural 
practice, but the writers being wholly ignorant of science, 
were unable to give the rationale of the most simple facts 
in agriculture; and hence agricultural schools for instruc- 
tion in agricultural principles were out of the question. 

In modern times the interest manifested in agricultural 
education has grown with the development of modern 
science. In the first half of the eighteenth century a 
number of works upon agriculture appeared, in which the 
few faint glimpses of experimental science, at that time 
known, were used to illuminate agricultural practice. 

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 

As early as 1730, Wallerius was engaged in chemico- 
agricultural investigations in Sweden, while Jethro Tull 
was developing his system of practical farming in England; 
and in 17G1, the former published a work (Agriculture 
Fundamenta Chemica) in which he sought to develop a 
system of manuring founded on the examination of the 
ashes of plants. Quesnay, in 1747, founded the Physio- 
cratic School in France; the principal object of which was 
the dissemination of agricultural ideas. A little later, ag- 
ricultural societies were founded in Switzerland, Saxony, 
and Hanover; and as the interest in the dissemination of 
agriculture increased, agricultural professorships were esta- 

2 



6 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

blished in the universities of Goettingen, (1769,) Giessen, 
Eostock, and Leipsic, (1778;) and soon after- this, says a 
recent writer,* agricultural instruction was given in all 
the High Schools of the country. As yet, however, no 
agricultural schools had been founded. 

thaer's school. 

To the immortal Thaer is due the honor of first con- 
ceiving, and attempting to carry out, the idea of founding 
educational institutions especially devoted to instruction in 
agricultural science and practice. f 

Not only did Thaer see the necessity of having a system 
of education developed to correspond to the wants of the 
farmer, but, with surprising acuteness, he discerned what 
should constitute the general principles according to which 
this system should be built up. In his principles of agri- 
culture, (1809,) after dwelling upon the necessity of a 
knowledge of Botany, Zoology, and Chemistry, and other 
sciences, to an intelligent appreciation of agricultural prac- 
tice, he goes on to remark, that "it is then evident that agri- 
culture ought to borrow from every science the principles which 
she employs as the foundation of her own." With these ideas 
he founded his agricultural school. An English traveller 
who visited it in 1820, says: — 

"It comprised a model farm of 1200 acres, and a college for in- 
struction. The education was partly theoretical, and partly of a 
practical description. The former was provided for by three Pro- 

* Dr. Be"rnbaum Lehrbuch der Landwirthschaft. Vol. I. P. 31. 

•)• Albrecht D. Thaer was born in Hanover, Germany, 1752. He studied at the 
University of Goettingen about the time (1770) that Prof. Walther commenced his 
course of lectures on agriculture at that institution; and although he devoted him- 
self, while a student, to the study of medicine, he doubtless saw enough of the dis- 
advantages of attempting agricultural education in an old conservative institution 
with stereotyped habits, to satisfy him that a course of instruction so radically dif- 
ferent from that of the university, as that of scientific and practical agriculture 
must be, could only be carried out properly in a new order of institution especially 
adapted to agricultural science and practice. About 1800 he started a small agri- 
cultural school at his native town, Celle, in Hanover, but in 1803 it was broken up 
by the invasion of the French. Soon after, at the urgent solicitations of the King 
of Prussia. (1804,) he went to Beilin and founded the Agricultural School, with 
model farm, (400 acres,) at Moeglin, about 20 miles from the Prussian capital. 
The disastrous defeat of the Prussian army at Jena, and the subsequent occupation 
of Berlin by Napoleon's troops, (1806,) for a time delayed Thaer's plans; but, in 
1807, he opened his school with 10 students, and after the peace of Tilset he had 
an uninterrupted success with his school and farm till near his death in 1828. 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 7 

fessors, who lived upon the premises ; one for mathematics, Chemis- 
try and Geology ; one for the veterinary art ; and the third for Botany 
and the use of the various vegetable productions in the materia 
medica as well as for entomology. The practical instruction was 
communicated by an experienced agriculturist, who pointed out 
the method of applying the principles of the several sciences, to the 
daily routine of husbandry. The course commenced in September. 
During the winter months the time of the pupils was occupied in the 
study of mathematics, and the six books of Euclid were mastered by 
them ; whilst in the summer the knowledge thus obtained was 
applied to the measurement of land, timber, buildings, and other 
practical purposes. The first principles of Chemistry were also un- 
folded. By means of a good but economical apparatus, various ex- 
periments either on a large or small scale were performed. For 
the larger ones the brew-house and still-house with their appendages 
were found to be highly useful. Much attention was directed to 
the analysis of the soils, and the dhTerent sorts met with distinguished 
according to the relative proportion of their component parts, were 
arranged on the shelves with great order and regularity. There 
was an extensive botanic garden, arranged according to the system 
of Linnaeus ; an herbarium, containing a large collection of dried 
plants; a series of the skeletons of different animals connected 
with husbandry ; and models of agricultural implements, all open to 
the examination of students. The various implements used upon 
the farm were all made by smiths, wheelwrights, &c, residing around 
about the institution; and the pupils were allowed access to the 
workshops and encouraged to make themselves masters by minutely 
inspecting the implements, and the niceties of their construction." 

Thaer's school demonstrated the necessity of such insti- 
tutions, and hence a number of similar ones sprung up, 
under liberal government patronage, in different parts of 
Germany; as that of Tharant, near Dresden, (founded 
1811) for Sylviculture, and those of Hohenheim in Wurtem- 
burg, (1818) and Weyhenstephen in Bavaria, (1822) for 
agriculture. 

PESTALOZZl'S SYSTEM OF COMBINING MANUAL LABOR AND 

STUDY. 

While Thaer was thus developing his system of agricul- 
tural education in Germany, Pestalozzi (born at Zurich 
1745 and died 1827) was laboring in Switzerland to build 
up a system of education for the benefit of the poor, that 
would combine manual with mental labor. And this sys- 



8 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

tem, under the patronage of Fellenberg, with the labor of 
Wehrli, was inaugurated at Hofwyl, near Berne; where, 
in addition to a school for the poor, was also one for the 
sons of gentlemen of wealth, who wished to study agricul- 
tural science and practice ; and at a later period an addi- 
tional department for the education of teachers was estab- 
lished. After the death of Pestalozzi and Thaer the num- 
ber of agricultural schools gradually increased in Europe, 
till about the year 1840. The system of Pestalozzi (impro- 
perly called the Wehrli system) was gradually introduced, 
with various improvements and modifications for the benefit 
of the poor, and that of Thaer for the more independent 
classes, and in some institutions both were combined. 

RECENT PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATIONAL INSTI- 
TUTIONS. 

All these attempts at agricultural instruction were very 
imperfect, owing to the very undeveloped state of agricul- 
tural science. But the labors of De Saussure, Gay-Lussac, 
Thenard, Lavoisier, Sennebier, Priestley, Ingenhauss, 
Davy, and other scientific men, were preparing the way for 
an agricultural science which in the length and breadth of 
its domain, and the accuracy of its result, would afford am- 
ple material for thorough mental training and a prolonged 
college course. 

In 1840, Liebig, under the title of " Chemistry in rela- 
tion to Agriculture and Physiology," published a work in 
which was exhibited all his characteristic power of pre- 
senting in clear and forcible language, all that his prede- 
cessors had learned in regard to agricultural science, com- 
bined with what his own investigations and reflections had 
taught him. This work astounded the reading world; it 
was soon translated into the different languages of all cul- 
tivated people, and awakened the most active spirit of in- 
quiry in the minds of all educated men. Hundreds of 
scientific and practical men, in Europe and America, be- 
took themselves to experimentation in the field and labo- 
ratory, to test the correctness of Liebig's views. 

While in many cases of detail, these investigations led 
to the modification of many of Liebig's opinions, in the 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 9 

main they were found to be correct, and the necessity for 
agricultural schools in which to teach the newly developed 
science of agriculture, became more apparent every where, 
and accordingly we find that the number of such schools 
has been increasing with surprising rapidity within the 
last twenty years. So that at present we find about twenty 
High Agricultural Schools or Colleges in Germany alone, 
three in France, one in England, one in Ireland, one in 
Holland, and in addition to these, several hundred ele- 
mentary agricultural schools for the peasantry, and a large 
number of Professorships of Agriculture in the different 
Universities of Europe. Nearly all the high schools and 
colleges have farms attached, and extensive means in the 
laboratory and field to experiment in agricultural science 
and practice. 

The principal part of them are supported, in part, by 
state patronage, and their increasing number and import- 
ance is a marked indication of the necessity of their exist- 
ence. Even in Russia, an agricultural school was founded 
near St. Petersburgh about twenty-four years ago, at which 
the Emperor educated the serfs who were to help manage 
the immense estates of his realm. They devoted five years 
to labor and study so as to become familiar with the best 
methods of agricultural practice, and then were sent one by 
one to different parts of the Empire to infuse a knowledge 
of what they had learned into the minds of others; about 
sixty such were sent out annually; since this time other 
agricultural schools have been founded in that country. 

It was hardly possible that the subject of agricultural 
education should have occupied so prominent a place in 
the minds of European agriculturists, without attracting a 
corresponding degree of interest in American minds. Iu- 
deed, before any of the great modern scientific agricultural 
schools of Europe were founded, the necessity for the pro- 
fessional education of young farmers was proclaimed from 
American lips. 

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN NEW YORK. 

As early as 1838, the Hon. Jesse Buell was pleading the 



10 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

cause of Agricultural Education in New York. In an 
address prepared for delivery before the Agricultural and 
Horticultural society of New Haven, Connecticut, (a short 
time before his death) September 25, 1839, after dwelling 
upon the fact, that we have schools for the study of the 
sciences of medicine, law, engineering and war, and de- 
claring that for agriculture, by which, under the blessing of 
Providence, we virtually live and move and have our being, 
and which truly embraces a wider range of useful science 
than either law, medicine, or navigation, we have no means 
of professional education at all, he proceeds to point out 
the evil consequences of this absence of agricultural schools, 
in which to teach the principles and practice of agriculture, 
and urges upon farmers the necessity of having them estab- 
lished, and closes his appeal with the prophetic declara- 
tion, that u many who now hear me will live to see pro- 
fessional schools established in our land; to see their utility 
extolled, and to be induced to consider them the best nurse- 
ries of republican virtues, and the surest guarantee for the 
perpetuation of our liberties. They should be established, 
they will be established, and the sooner they are established 
the better for our country." (See page 280, The Farmer's 
Companion of 1840.) From 1842 till 1846, the subject of 
agricultural education was discussed by prominent citizens 
of the New York Agricultural Society, and in the latter 
year an effort was made to induce the Legislature to take 
some action upon the subject. 

The question was repeatedly brought before the Legisla- 
ture in subsequent years, but elicited no action till 1853, 
when a bill was passed incorporating the " New York Agri- 
cultural College," but providing no means for founding it. 
In 1855 a subscription was opened, and soon after an act 
of Legislature passed, loaning the college $40,000 for twenty 
years without interest, provided a like sum be raised by 
private subscriptions for the purchasing of a farm, erecting 
of College buildings, &c, &c. Soon afterwards a farm was 
secured of 700 acres, between the village of Ovid and the 
eastern shore of Seneca Lake. A large college building 
was laid out and a part of it finished so as to admit 150 
students. The college was open for students on the first 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 11 

day of December, I860, but it did not survive the general de- 
pression produced by the war, and at present its doors are 
closed. 

The People's College, which was also designed to be, in 
part, agricultural in character, was incorporated in 1853 
by an act of Legislature, and subsequently located upon 
a tract of 200 acres of land in Schuyler county, New 
York. The buildings of this college have been partially 
completed, but it is not yet in successful operation. 

MICHIGAN. 

The State of Michigan has a clause in her constitution 
(adopted 1850) providing for an Agricultural College, in 
accordance with which, in 1855, the Legislature appro- 
priated $50,000, with which a tract of 700 acres of land 
was purchased, near Lansing, and buildings erected upon 
it for an Agricultural College. In 1857 an additional 



),000 was appropriated to the College, and in the follow- 
ing May, students were admitted. To Michigan belongs 
the honor of thus having put the first State Agricultural 
College in the United States in operation, but for some 
cause this College has been obliged to suspend operation. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

The Massachusetts Legislature, as early as 1850, appoint- 
ed committees to investigate the subject of Agricultural 
education, and in 1856 incorporated a " school of agricul- 
ture," and the question is still under consideration by pro- 
minent citizens of the state, but as yet, the school has 
not been founded. 

MARYLAND. 

The Maryland Agricultural College was incorporated in 
the winter of 1856, and soon after located upon the home- 
stead of the Hon. Charles B. Calvert, upon a farm of 400 
acres, ten miles north of Washington City; the act pro- 
vided for an annual appropriation of $6,000, for the sup- 
port of the college, provided the sum of $50,000 was first 
received by subscription; this amount being received, the 
college was partially completed and opened for students in 
1860, and has been in successful operation since that time. It 
differs from the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, in its 



12 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

course of instruction, being more nearly allied to that of 
ordinary literary colleges, and consequently having a less 
scientific course, and in its not requiring manual labor 
of each student upon the farm. 

IOWA. 

The Iowa State Agricultural College and Farm was incor- 
porated in March, 1858, and some provisions were made 
for the erection of college buildings, but the disturbed state 
of the country has for some time suspended operations there. 

MINNESOTA. 

The Minnesota Agricultural College was incorporated in 
1858, and located on a farm of 320 acres in Glen County, 
but the buildings for a college have not yet been erected. 

ILLINOIS. 

The agitation in favor of Agricultural Colleges in Illinois 
was commenced early by public-spirited men, and as early 
as 1852 the Legislature was memorialized upon the sub- 
ject. Repeated efforts have been made by the friends of 
agriculture in the state, to induce the Legislature to found 
an Agricultural College, yet nothing has been done by the 
state. But private enterprise has succeeded in establish- 
ing the embryo of an agricultural college near Chicago, 
though it is languishing ibr that aid which every enlight- 
ened state should confer upon agricultural education. 

OHIO. 

The State of Ohio has had the subject of agricultural 
education before its Legislature at different times, but 
nothing tangible has, so far as we know, resulted from its 
action. A Farmers' College, with a few acres of land, has 
been established by private enterprise near Cincinnati, but 
its course of instruction does not differ essentially from 
that of an ordinary literary college. 

AGRICULTURAL PROFESSORSHIP. 

In several of the Colleges and Universities of the United 
States, Agricultural Chairs have been established. 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 16 

In the preceding brief synopsis we have not mentioned 
the names of the many public-spirited and liberal-minded 
men, by whose disinterested efforts all these attempts to 
found agricultural institutions of learning have been made. 

It was sufficient for the purposes of this paper to briefly 
note what they have done, and leave their names to history, 
which will yet tell their deeds to unborn grateful millions, 
who, in future generations, will enjoy the blessings of agri- 
cultural education in institutions originating in their un- 
rewarded and unappreciated efforts. We now come to that 
which more nearly concerns us in the present history. 

©lie g^rintltttKtl Mltp $t fmt^tomtk 

This Institution, though about the first that was founded 
in the country, is still hardly old enough to* constitute a 
subject for a history ; but as many questions are often 
asked in regard to its origin, it is deemed proper to devote 
a few pages here to this subject. 

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The State of Pennsylvania was one of the first in the 
Union to adopt measures for the diffusion of agricultural 
intelligence. As early as 1785 the Philadelphia Agricul- 
tural Society was founded, and its members met regularly 
for a number of years. In 1823, .the Pennsylvania Agri- 
cultural Society including the counties of Philadelphia, 
Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware, was founded. This 
Society held some fairs during its existence. 

PENNSYLVANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

In 1851, the present Pennsylvania State Agricultural 
Society was organized, under the auspices of which the 
Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania (now the Agri- 
cultural College of Pennsylvania) originated. As already 
intimated, the primary idea of Educational Institutions, 
especially devoted to instruction in agriculture, and the 
industrial arts, was of much earlier origin. 

ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

It was a legitimate consequence of the progress of modern 



14 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

science and its important bearings upon the practical 
operations of life, together with the general diffusion of 
knowledge among all classes, by which the purely sci- 
entific and purely practical man were brought into con- 
tact with each other. 

The necessity for Agricultural Schools was apparent to 
any one at all acquainted with the resources of science, 
or the demands of Agricultural practice. 

The importance of Agricultural Education being recog- 
nised, the only question at issue, related to the manner in 
which a system of Agricultural Education should be in- 
augurated. 

KIND OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS WANTED. 

Did the Agricultural interest demand a course of in- 
struction as extensive as that of our ordinary Colleges, 
obliging the student to devote three to five years to the study 
of those sciences which relate to agricultural and the in- 
dustrial arts, as in the highest Agricultural Institutions in 
Europe, or did it demand only an elementary course, such 
as is there given in their schools for Farm Bailiffs, who 
are not supposed to have the tastes and aspirations of 
those whom they technically term gentlemen? 

Was it desirable that the farmer should have such a 
knowledge of agricultural science, as would enable him to 
investigate and develop" agricultural principles, or was it 
simply desirable to teach him to practise those rules, 
which others deduced for him from principles he could 
not understand? Was it desirable that one large Agri- 
cultural Institution be founded in a State, capable of em- 
ploying a sufficient number of professors to admit of a 
proper division of labor amongst them, and consequently 
enable them to afford a thorough and efficient course of 
instruction, in order to educate a few students to a high 
standard? or was it better to have several smaller local 
Institutions capable of giving only a popular smattering to 
a larger number of students? These questions were can- 
vassed by various parties, and the several different plans 
they refer to, proposed by different individuals, but with- 
out any one being accompanied with sufficient evidence in 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 15 

its favor, to leave no doubt of its being the best system. 
But the time had come for trying the experiment. 

A number of prominent men in Pennsylvania had been 
thinking upon the necessity of Agricultural Education 
for several years. An Agricultural Institution of learn- 
ing, adapted to the wants of the farmer, had been a favor- 
ite idea with the present worthy President of the Board 
of Trustees of the Agricultural College of Pennsylva- 
nia for twenty years before this Institution was founded; 
but the pressing duties of public life prevented him from 
devoting time to the advocacy of these views till, in 1853, 
the subject was brought before the Pennsylvania State 
Agricultural Society. 

ORIGIN OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

This Society originated in a call, dated May 15, 1850, 
for an Agricultural Convention to be held at Harrisburg, 
on the 21st of January, 1851. It was signed by James 
Gowen, Dr. Elwyn, Samuel C. Ford, Algernon S. Roberts 
and J. P. Wetherill. 

This Convention was attended by delegates from 55 
counties of the State; after having organized, a committee 
was appointed to memorialize the Legislature for a charter. 
The Hon. Fred. Watts was appointed Chairman, and 
Dr. A. Elwyn, Secretary for the year. 

Upon the last three days of the following October, the 
first annual fair of the Society was held at Harrisburg: 
About 20,000 persons are supposed to have been present, 
and the first annual meeting of the Society was held at 
the same place, on the 20th of the following January, 
(1852.) 

The President, and Secretary, and Vice Presidents of 
the preceding year, were re-elected. 

The second annual exhibition was held on the 20th, 
21st, and 22d of October, at Lancaster, and proved to be 
an entire and unprecedented success, and the report of pre- 
miums awarded by the Judges, was embodied in the first 
annual report of the Society, presented by the President 
to Governor Bigler, January 20th, 1854. 

The second annual meeting convened January 18th, 



16 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

1853, at Harrisburg. At this meeting, Messrs. Frederick 
Watts, James H. Ewing and H. N. McAllister, were ap- 
pointed members of a Board of Agriculture, in pursuance 
of a provision of the United States Agricultural Society, 
establishing such a Board; also, the following gentlemen 
presented a report upon the subject of an Agricultural 
School, A. S. Roberts, T. C. Carothers, Jos. Kcenigmacher, 
A. 0. Hiester, D. Mellinger. 

AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. 

The members of this Committee state that they believe 
the present to be an auspicious time for founding an Agri- 
cultural School; that the advantages to be derived from 
it, are too obvious to require demonstration, and that to 
inaugurate the movement, they recommend the calling 
of a general convention of Delegates from all parts of 
the State, to meet at Harrisburg, to consider this subject; 
whereupon it was resolved 

" That an Agricultural Convention be held at Harris- 
burg, on Tuesday, the 8th of March next, to adopt measures 
for the establishment of an Agricultural Institution, to be 
styled, ' The Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, , with 
a model farm attached thereto, and that the convention con- 
sists of as many delegates from each district, as there are 
Senators and Legislators from the same: said delegates to be 
chosen by the Agricultural Societies where such are located, 
and in other districts by the friends of Agricultural Edu- 
cationr 

THE FARMERS HIGH SCHOOL OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

This convention met and, in the language of the Hon. 
Frederick Watts, in a letter afterwards addressed to Go- 
vernor Bigler, " with an unparalleled unanimity recom- 
mended the establishment of a school for the education 
of Farmers, and gave the subject in charge to a committee 
to have it enacted into a law, and carried into effect." 

This letter, which Judge Watts, as President of the 
State Agricultural Society, addressed to Governor Bigler 
on the occasion of his presenting the first copy of the 
annual report of that Society, is devoted mainly to the 
consideration of the proposed Agricultural School. 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 17 

The advantages of such a school to the farmer, are 
pointed out with the characteristic force and perspicuity 
of the author, and a plan for its organization, together 
with the probable expenses of founding and maintaining 
it, is given. 

In accordance with the decision of that committee, the 
next Legislature was applied to for an Act of Incorpora- 
tion, which was granted and approved, April 13th, 1854. 

ACT OF INCORPORATION. 

This act states that "the Institution shall be called the 
Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, and shall be 
under the control of a Board of Trustees, composed of the 
Presidents of the County Agricultural Societies, and the 
President and Vice President of the State Agricultural 
Society, thirteen of whom shall constitute a quorum. They 
are directed to meet at Harrisburg, on the 2d Thursday 
of June after the passage of this act, and to organize and 
select a site, and erect buildings for an Institution, and 
•procure a good practical farmer for its principal, who, 
with such other persons, as shall from time to time be era- 
ployed as teachers, shall compose the faculty." 

The teachers are to be capable of imparting a know- 
ledge of the English Language, Grammar, Geography, 
History, Mathematics, and such other branches of the 
natural and applied sciences, as would conduce to the 
proper education of a farmer. And the students should 
be required to perform a certain amount of manual labor 
daily. 

It was also made lawful for the State Agricultural So- 
ciety to donate, out of its funds, for the purpose of the 
act, the sum of $10,000. 

It is obvious that this act contemplated an Institution 
for a very elementary course of scientific and literary in- 
struction, combined with instruction in practical agricul- 
ture; but its most remarkable feature was the provision 
for the control of the Institution. 

It requires but little reflection to see that a responsi- 
bility so divided as that devolving upon the trustees de- 
signated in this act, would be felt by no one. 



18 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

FIRST MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

But in conformity with the provisions of the act, a few 
of the persons designated therein as trustees, met at Harris- 
burg, on the loth of June, 1854, to consider its provi- 
sions, when it was found that a quorum of members was 
not present. 

On motion of the Hon. George W. Woodward, it was 

Resolved, That Messrs. Frederick Watts, James Gowen, 
and John Strohm, be appointed a committee to report a 
plan of organization to the next meeting of the Board, to 
be held on the 13th of July following, at Harrisburg. 

At this adjourned meeting, only Messrs. Watts of Cum- 
berland, Mumma and Rutherford of Dauphin, Mcllvaine 
of Chester, Boal of Centre, and Baxter of Philadelphia, 
were present. 

REPORT ON PLAN OF ORGANIZING A SCHOOL. 

In behalf of the committee to which was referred the 
subject of a plan of organization for the Farmers' High 
School of Pennsylvania, the Hon. Frederick Watts re- 
ported that the committee are of opinion, that no good 
can result from any effort to organize under the existing 
law, that it provides for too many trustees (50 or 60) — 
that these are liable to be created or removed by causes 
entirely independent of the interest of the school, and 
they recommend that the Board shall consist of not more 
than 13 in number, of whom 9 shall be elected, and 4 
ex-officio members. The committee further state that the 
bill is defective in view of its making no appropriation in 
aid of the object to be attained by it, and they go on to say 
that " There are many public-spirited men who believe 
" that the establishment of such a school where boys may 
" be educated as farmers, is of more importance than any 
" design which could occupy public attention. It is a fact 
" universally known, that the literary institutions of this 
"country, as at present constituted, educate young men 
" to a state of total unfitness, not only for the pursuit of 
" a farmer, but as a companion for his parents, brothers 
"and sisters, with whom he is expected to spend his life. 
" He is therefore driven from his father's estate, and into 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 19 

" a profession for which he has perhaps little capacity, 
" and where he is subjected to all the temptations of an 
" idle life. Whereas, the Farm School proposes to impart 
"an education which is appropriate to a farmer, which 
" educates his body to the art, as well as his mind to the 
" science of farming, and which will have the feature of 
"making the Institution so nearly self-sustaining, as to 
"bring education, in point of expense, within the reach of 
"every man who desires to make his son an educated 
" farmer." 

The probable expense of founding and sustaining such 
a school is then given, and the necessity of founding it 
still further dwelt upon. 

Whereupon, it was 

Resolved, That the report be referred to Frederick Watts, 
George W. Woodward, and A. L. Elvvyn, whose duty it 
should be to address the people of the State upon the sub- 
ject, and to apply to the next Legislature to amend the 
bill as indicated in the report, and that said committee 
make all necessary inquiries where the Farmers High 
School of Pennsylvania may be most advantageously lo- 
cated, and that they invite propositions from all parts of 
the State, for its locality. 

A CALL FOR OFFERS OF A SITE FOR THE SCHOOL. 

The committee published an address, July 21st, 1854, 
to the people of Pennsylvania, setting forth the claims of 
the school, and its advantages to farmers, and the prospect 
of its soon being located, and tbey called upon persons for 
offers of inducements to locate it in specified localities. 

At the fourth annual meeting of the State Agricultural 
Society, convened at Harrisburg, January 16th, 1855, a 
resolution was passed expressive of the deep interest felt 
by the State Agricultural Society of Pennsylvania in the 
Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, and praying the 
Legislature, then in session, to make such change in the 
Act of Incorporation of the Farmers' High School, as 
would secure its establishment. 

At this meeting, the following communication was re- 
ceived, which, because of the liberality of the donor, and 



20 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

of its being the first of its kind received, deserves a place 
here. 

AN OFFER OF A SITE BY JUDGE MILES. 

Gentlemen: — Believing the Agricultural interests of our 
State may be greatly and eminently promoted by the early 
establishment of the Farmers' High School of Pennsylva- 
nia, where a thorough, practical and scientific education 
may be acquired by the youth of our State who desire to 
make the tillage of the soil the business of their lives, I 
beg to make known to you, and through you to the gen- 
tlemen who are, or may be appointed trustees of the Far- 
mers' High School of Pennsylvania, that I will give to the 
Institution, two hundred acres of land, situated in Girard 
Township, Erie County, provided said School be located 
on said land. 

Yours truly, James Miles. 

Subsequent to this, the Legislature passed the following 
Act of Incorporation of the Farmers' High School of 
Pennsylvania. 

An Act to Incorporate "The Farmers High School of Penn- 
sylvania : " 

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General As- 
sembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same, That there be and is hereby erected and established, at the 
place which shall be designated by the authority, and as herein- 
after provided, an Institution for the education of youth in the 
various branches of science, learning and practical agriculture, as 
they are connected with each other, by the name, style and title of 
" The Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania." 

Sec. 2. That the said Institution shall be under the manage- 
ment and government of a Board of Trustees, of whom there shall 
be thirteen, and seven of whom shall be a quorum, competent to 
perform the duties hereinafter authorized and required. 

Sec. 3. That the Governor, Secretary of the Commonwealth, 
the President of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, 
and the Principal of the Institution, shall each be ex-officio a mem- 
ber of the Board of Trustees, and they with Dr. Alfred L. El- 
wyn, and Algernon S. Roberts of the City of Philadelphia, H. N. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 21 

McAllister, of the County of Centre, R. C. Walker, of the County 
of Allegheny, James Miles, of the County of Erie, John Strohm, 
of the County of Lancaster, A. 0. Hiester, of the County of Dau- 
phin, William Jessup, of the County of Susquehanna, and Frede- 
rick Watts, of the County of Cumberland, shall constitute the first 
Board of Trustees; which said Trustees, and their successors in 
office, are hereby erected and declared to be a body politic and cor- 
porate in law, with perpetual succession, by the name, style and 
title of the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania ; by which name 
and title the said Trustees, and their successors, shall be able and 
capable in law to take by gift, grant, sale or conveyance, by be- 
quest, devise or otherwise, any estate in any lands, tenements and 
hereditaments, goods, chattels or effects, and at pleasure to alien 
or otherwise dispose of the same to and for the uses and purposes 
of the said Institution: Provided, however, That the annual in- 
come of the said estate, so held, shall at no time exceed twenty-five 
thousand dollars; and the said Corporation shall by the same 
name, have power to sue and be sued, and generally to do and 
transact all and every business touching or concerning the premi- 
ses, or which shall be necessarily incidental thereto, and to hold, 
enjoy and exercise all such powers, authorities and jurisdiction as 
are customary in the Colleges within this Commonwealth. 

Sec. 4. That the Trustees shall cause to be made a seal, with 
such device as they may think proper, and by and with which all 
the deeds and diplomas, certificates and acts of the Institution shall 
be authenticated, and they may, at their pleasure, alter the same. 

Sec. 5. That at the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, the 
nine named who are not ex-officio members, shall by themselves 
and by lot, be divided into three classes, of three each, numbered 
one, two and three. The appointment hereby made of class number 
one, shall terminate on the first Monday of October, one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-six, number two on the first Monday of 
October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, and number 
three on the first Monday of October, one thousand eight hundred 
and fifty-eight; and upon the termination of the office of such 
Directors, to wit : on the first Monday of October in every year, 
an election shall be held at the Institution to supply their place, 
and such election shall be determined by the votes of the mem- 
bers of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania State Agri- 
cultural Society, and the votes of three representatives duly chosen 
by each County Agricultural Society in this Commonwealth, which 
shall have been organized at least three months preceding the 
time of election; and it shall be the duty of the said Board of 
Trustees to appoint two of their number as judges, to hold the said 
election, to receive and count the votes, and return the same to the 



22 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

Board of Trustees, with their certificate of the number of votes 
cast, and for whom ; whereupon the said Board shall determine who 
have received the highest number of votes cast, and who are 
thereby elected. 

Sec. 6. That on the second Thursday of June, after the pas- 
sage of this act, the Board of Trustees who are hereby appointed, 
shall meet in Harrisburg, and proceed to the organization of the 
institution, and selection of the most eligible site within the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania for its location, where they shall pur- 
chase or obtain by gift, grant or otherwise, a tract of land con- 
taining at least two hundred acres, and not exceeding two thousand 
acres, upon which they shall procure such improvements and 
alterations to be made, as will make it an Institution properly 
adapted to the instruction of youth, in the art of farming, accord- 
ing to the meaning and design of this act ; they shall select and 
choose a Principal for the said Institution, who with such scientific 
attainment and capacity to teach as the Board shall deem necessary, 
shall be a good practical farmer ; he with such other persons as shall 
from time to time be employed as teachers, shall compose the faculty, 
under whose control the immediate management of the Institution, 
and the instruction of all the youth committed to its care, shall be 
subject, however, to the revision and all orders of the Board of 
Trustees ; there shall be a quarterly meeting of the Board of Trus- 
tees at the Institution, and as much oftener as shall be necessary, 
and as they shall determine ; the Board shall have power to pass all 
such By-Laws, ordinances and rules as the good government of 
the Institution shall require, and therein to prescribe what shall 
be taught to, and what labor performed by the pupils, and gene- 
rally to do and perform all such administrative acts as are usually 
performed by and with the appropriate duty of a Board of Trus- 
tees, and shall, by a Secretary of their appointment, keep a minute 
of the proceedings and action of the Board. 

Sec. 7. That it shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees, as 
soon and as often as the exigencies of the Institution shall require, 
in addition to the Principal, to employ such other professors, teach- 
ers or tutors, as shall be qualified to impart to pupils under their 
charge, a knowledge of the English language, Grammar, Geogra- 
phy, History, Mathematics, Chemistry, and such other branches 
of the natural and exact sciences, as will conduce to the proper 
education of a Farmer; the pupils shall themselves, at such proper 
times and seasons as shall be prescribed by the Board of Trustees, 
perform all the labor necessary in the cultivation of the Farm, 
and shall thus be instructed and taught all things necessary to be 
known by a Farmer, it being the design and intention of this act 
to establish an Institution in which youth may be educated, so as to 
fit them for the occupation of a Farmer. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 23 

Sec. 8. That the Board of Trustees shall annually elect a 
Treasurer, who shall receive and disburse the funds of the Insti- 
tution, and perform such other duties as shall be required of him, 
and from whom they shall take such security for the faithful per- 
formance of his duty, as necessity shall require ; and it shall be 
the duty of the said Board of Trustees, annually, on or before the 
first of December, to make out a full and detailed account of the 
operations of the Institution for the preceding year, and an ac- 
count of all its receipts and disbursements, and report the same to 
the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, who shall embody 
said report in the annual report, which by existing laws, the said 
Society is bound to make and transmit to the Legislature, on or 
before the first Monday of January, of each and every year. 

Sec. 9. That it shall be lawful for the Pennsylvania State 
Agricultural Society to appropriate out of their funds to the object 
of this act, a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, whenever 
the same shall be required, and to make such further appropria- 
tions annually, out of their funds, as will aid in the prosecution of 
this object, and it shall be the duty and privilege of the said So- 
ciety, at such times as they shall deem expedient by their com- 
mittees, officers or otherwise, to visit the said Institution, and ex- 
amine into the details of its management. 

Sec. 10. That the Act to Incorporate the Farmers High School 
of Pennsylvania, approved the thirteenth day of April, Anno 
Domini, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, be and the 
same is hereby repealed. HENRY K. STRONG, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
WM. M. HIESTER, 
Speaker of Senate. 

Approved — The twenty-second day of February, Anno Domini, 
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five. JAS. POLLOCK. 

(The above is the present law, with the simple excep- 
tion of the time of holding the annual meeting of Dele- 
gates, which by act of Legislature, approved Ma}^ 20th, 
1857, was changed to the first Wednesday in September. 
And a subsequent act providing that five members shall 
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.) 

MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

The following members of the Executive Committee, met 
at Harrisburg, April 17th, 1855: Jas. Gowen, H. N. McAl- 
lister, A. 0. Hiester, John Strohm, James Miles, Abraham 
Mclllvain, Isaac G. McKinley, Thomas P. Knox, George 



24 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

H. Bucher, William Bigler, David Mumma, J. S. Halde- 
man, A. L. Elwyn, A. S. Roberts, J. P. Rutherford, and 
R. C. Walker. At this meeting, a communication was 
received from Gen. James Irvin, proposing to donate 200 
acres of land, in Centre County, for the purpose of an 
Agricultural School. The Secretary was directed to lay 
this proposition, together with that from Judge Miles, of 
Erie, with any others, that might be received, before the 
Trustees of the Farmers High School, at their meeting 
in June next; and with a hope of exciting emulation; 
and inducing citizens from other parts of the State to 
make similar offers. This order to the Secretary was pub- 
lished in the leading Newspapers of the State. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

On the 14th of June following, the Board of Trustees 
met at the office of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural 
Society, at Harrisburg, and organized according to the 
provision of the Act of Incorporation. (Page 20.) There 
were present, Messrs. James Pollock, Governor, and A. G. 
Curtin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, A. 0. Hiester, 
Frederick Watts, H. N. McAllister, John Strohm, James 
Miles, A. L. Elwyn, and Robert C. Walker. 

SITES OFFERED. 

The following proposals to donate and sell land for a 
site, were made: James Miles to donate 200 acres, in Erie 
County; Genl. James Irvin, to donate 200, in Centre 
County; Elias Baker, to donate 200 in Blair County; 
James Bailey, to sell 2000 acres in Perry County, and Geo. 
A. Bayard, to sell 600 acres in Allegheny County. On 
motion of H. N. McAllister, Governor Pollock, Judge 
Watts and Dr. Elwyn, were appointed a committee to ex- 
amine the several sites offered. 

At the next meeting of the Board, July 17th, 1855, at 
Harrisburg, this committee made an elaborate report, sta- 
ting that they had visited several sites offered for the lo- 
cation of the college. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 25 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE TO EXAMINE ' SITES. 

General James Irvin had offered any one of three farms 
of two hundred acres of good limestone land, with the pre- 
emption right to two hundred additional acres, adjoining 
any one of them within five years. 

The two hundred acres offered by James Miles, were 
situated about eighteen miles west of the city of Erie, be- 
tween the railroad which bounds it on the south, and the 
lake shore. The land was a sandy loam, highly fertile, 
with about one hundred acres of cleared land, and the rest 
with heavy timber; he would also give the pre-emption 
right to any additional quantity of land, which may be 
desired, at $60,00 per acre. 

The estate of George A. Bayard was situated on the 
Youghiogheny River, about three miles from its mouth, and 
eighteen miles from Pittsburgh. It consisted of 600 acres 
of well-watered freestone land, worth $35.00 per acre. 
Very extensive improvements had been made upon the 
estate, including several dwelling-houses, and two large 
barns. Mr. Bayard would sell on reasonable terms. 

The two hundred acres offered by Elias Baker, were 
situated in Blair County, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
about two miles southwest of Altoona; all the land, ex- 
cept about forty acres, was cleared and fenced, about sixty 
acres (south of the Railroad) was of good freestone land, 
and the balance (north of the Railroad) good slate land. 
There were upwards of two hundred acres more in the 
tract that could be purchased at about $25.00 per acre. All 
the land was finely watered. 

The committee further stated, that they had just re- 
ceived an offer of 200 acres of land, worth $60.00 per 
acre, from Wm. H. Easton of Franklin County; also, that 
in their examination of the land, they had been accompa- 
nied by several members of the Board, of whose opinion 
they had availed themselves, in viewing the several tracts 
offered. 

The committee close their report by saying, that although 
any one of the several sites they had viewed would be eli- 
gible, yet in view of the importance of the subject, and the 
fact that the people of the state were not yet sufficiently 



26 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

acquainted with their efforts, they did not then deem it 
advisable to make a selection of any one of the sites offered. 

The committee was then continued, and directed to exa- 
mine such other sites as might be offered, and to report at 
the next meeting of the Board. In order that all friends 
of agricultural education over the state might have an op- 
portunity to offer inducements to locate the college where 
they wished it, the proceedings of the meeting were ordered 
to be published in all the prominent papers of the state. 

The Hon. Simon Cameron then stated that he thought 
$10,000 could be raised in Dauphin County to purchase a 
farm there for a site, and that to this end he would lead a 
subscription with $1,000. Messrs. J. W. Patten and J. 
Morrow, in behalf of the citizens of Blair county, offered 
to purchase two hundred additional acres, adjoining the 
two hundred offered by Colonel Baker, thus offering four 
hundred acres, provided the school were located in Blair 
county. 

The meeting of the executive committee of the State 
Agricultural Society also convened at this time in Harris- 
burgh. On motion of H. N. McAllister, at this meeting, it 
was Resolved, That the sum of $10,000 be appropriated by 
the State Agricultural Society to the Farmers' High School 
of Pennsylvania. 

The third meeting of the Board of Trustees convened at 
Harrisburg, September 12, 1855. 

The Committee appointed to view sites for the location 
of the college, reported that, since the last meeting of the 
board, they had viewed three farms, offered by Mr. Easton, 
of Franklin County; two of them, of about 200 acres each, 
' were situated on the Pittsburg turnpike, near the town of 
Loudon, both good limestone land in a high state of im- 
provement, and on the one nearest the town a never-fail- 
ing spring of water. A third farm, between Loudon and 
Mercersburg, of 240 acres limestone land in a high state of 
improvement, was also offered. 

The Committee also presented a letter just received from 
David Blair, in which he offered to donate 200 acres, near 
Shade Gap, on the road leading from Mount Union, on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, to Chambersburg, containing about 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 27 

130 acres of cultivated land, the whole well watered, and 
limestone quarries on it. In regard to the site in Centre 
County, H. N. McAllister presented a paper in which he. 
James Irvin and A. G. Curtin, pledged themselves in be- 
half of Centre and Huntingdon Counties to donate the 
sum of $10,000 for the purposes implied in the act of incor- 
poration of the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, pro- 
vided the said site be accepted. 

Mr. McFarlane and Elias Baker offered to donate 400 
acres of land near Altoona, and to guaranty the sum of 
$10,000 from the citizens of Biair County, provided this 
site were accepted. 

An offer was also made by the trustees of the estate of 
Mr. Moore in Union County to sell 265 acres of land for a 
site. 

FINAL VOTE ON THE LOCATION OF'THE SCHOOL. 

After due consideration of all these oners, the Hon. 
Fred. Watts, of Cumberland, offered the following resolu- 
tion : — Resolved, that the adoption of the proposition of Gen. 
James Irvin for the location of the Farmers High School of 
Pennsylvania will best promote the interests of the institution, 
and that the same is hereby adopted. 

The question being on the adoption, Mr. Jas. Gowen 
moved to strike out the name of General Irvin and insert 
that of Elias Baker; not agreed to. Dr. Elwyn moved to 
strike out the name of General Irvin and insert that of H. 
Easton — not agreed to. Fred. Watts then moved that the 
question be postponed, and that James Gowen, A. O. 
Hiester and John Strohm be appointed a committee of 
three to examine the propositions and determine which 
should be accepted — not agreed to. Robt. C. Walker then 
moved to strike from the resolution the name of General 
James Irvin and insert that of Geo. A. Bayard ; not agreed 
to. The question then recurring upon the original resolu- 
tion, was decided in the affirmative. 

The details of the selection of a site as just given are 
made more full than would otherwise have been neces- 
sary, in order to satisfy persons who may have an interest 
in the subject, that the present site of the Agricultural Col- 



28 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

lege of Pennsylvania was not selected without a full and 
free opportunity for the friends of any other site to offer 
inducements for its location and erection, and without the 
claims thus presented being fairly and impartially considered. 

SOLICITATION OF AID FROM THE STATE. 

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held January 4th, 
1856, H. N. McAllister, A. 0. Hiester and Robt. C. Walker 
were appointed a committee to solicit an appropriation (of 
$50,000) from the Legislature then in session, for the 
furtherance of the object of the act of Incorporation of 
the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania. 

PLANS FOR COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 

At this meeting several plans for college buildings were 
presented. One by H. N. McAllister, for the college build- 
ing, and one by Fred. Watts for a barn, were adopted, 
and H. N. McAllister, Fred. Watts, and James Miles were 
appointed a building committee to contract for the con- 
struction of the college buildings. Means were taken to 
secure a principal and competent teachers, to open the 
school as soon as the buildings were ready for the admis- 
sion of pupils. The board also agreed to take 200 addi- 
tional acres of land from Gen. James Irvin, making a farm 
of 400 acres. 

CONTRACT TO ERECT COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 

On the 12th of May, 1856, the building committee 
articled with Messrs. Turner & Natcher to construct the 
College Buildings for the sum of $55,000, and the work 
upon the building was at once commenced. 

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF DELEGATES. 

On the 6th of the following October, the board met for 
the first time at the site of the College. The occasion was 
that of the first annual meeting of delegates for the elec- 
tion of trustees. The contract of Turner and Natcher was 
approved by the board. Measures were taken to secure a 
sum of nearly ($5,000) left by the will of the late Elliot 
Cresson to the Farmers High School; and Messrs. F. Watts, 
H. N. McAllister and J. Strohm, were appointed a com- 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 29 

mittee to lay the affairs of the institution before the next 
Legislature. 

APPROPRIATION BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Accordingly, at the next Session, a bill to appropriate 
$50,000 to the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, was 
placed in the hands of Colonel Gregg, at that time Senator 
from that district. The committee also found an earnest, 
influential advocate in the Hon. James T. Hale, of Centre 
County. 

Colonel Gregg at once espoused the cause of the bill with 
all the earnestness of an advocate; and, in conjunction with 
Judge Hale and the committee, canvassed it thoroughly be- 
fore the Legislature, and finally brought it to the test of a 
vote by which it became a law, approved May 20th, 1857. 

The Act in question appropriated $25,000 at once to the 
Farmers High School, in view of $25,000 already obtained; 
and appropriated an additional $25,000, provided a like 
sum be raised by subscription. It further provides that 
the annual meeting of delegates for the election of mem- 
bers to the Board of Trustees be held on the first Wednes- 
day of September. 

At the 7th meeting of the Board held at Harrisburg the 
18th of March, 1858, H. N. McAllister, of the Committee 
appointed for this purpose, made a report upon the progress 
of the Buildings under the contract, and of the state of the 
farm. 

The passage of the act of May, 1859, infused new con- 
fidence into the movement. It placed $25,000 in the hands 
of the Trustees at once, in addition to the $25,000 already 
collected by subscription, and there was little doubt felt 
that the other 25,000 could easily be raised, thus redeem- 
ing the additional $25,000 from the Legislature, and making 
a total of $100,000, at the disposal of the Trustees. With 
the main College Buildings contracted for $55,000, there 
seemed to be an additional surplus quite sufficient for erect- 
ing out-buildings and putting the farm into proper order 
for opening the college. At a meeting of the Board, July 
2d, 1857, E. C. Humes was authorized to draw upon the 
State Treasury for $25,000 in accordance with the act of 
May 20. 



30 "AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

A LARGE MEETING OF DELEGATES. 

The annual meeting of delegates for the election of Trus- 
tees assembled September 2d, 1857. There were dele- 
gates present from Allegheny, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Cam- 
bria, Chester, Clinton, Cumberland, Centre, Delaware, Erie, 
Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Mifflin, Northumberland, 
Perry, Schuylkill, Westmoreland, and Union. This meet- 
ing was opened by the Hon. Jas. T. Hale, thanking the 
audience for their attendance, and expressing a hope that 
the Hon. President of the Board of Trustees would favor 
them with some remarks upon the subject of the meeting, 
whereupon Judge Watts arose and said, that observation 
and reflection teach that men are classified by the amount 
and quality of their education, and not by their calling. 

That the merchants and manufacturers in the eastern 
states, the professional men of the middle states, and the 
planters of .the Southern States, were the most influential 
men in their respective states, because the best educated. 
The importance of agriculture in Pennsylvania, and the 
necessity of the agriculturist exerting a marked influence, 
pointed out the necessity of agricultural schools, at which 
to secure that education out of which this influence only 
can grow. He dwelt upon the great benefits conferred 
upon the agricultural interests, by the many agricultural 
societies which have recently been founded; and urged the 
necessity of building up the Farmers High School, as a 
means of still further enlightening the farmer on the duties 
of his calling, by affording a suitable course of instruction 
for his sons, at prices commensurate with his means. After 
alluding to the fact that the expense of an ordinary College 
course was too great to be met by the generality of farmers, 
he said: 

"But the cost is by no means the greatest objection; for the effect 
of this education upon the farmer's son in almost every case is, that 
of utterly estranging him from, and unfitting him for^the safe and 
healthful and normal pursuit of his father. The youth who returns 
to the farm at home, after three or four years' study of books at col- 
lege desks, and in purely literary society, finds utter uncongeniality 
in the company of his own father and brothers ; his mind has been 
turned into paths leading quite away from rural pursuits, and hjs hands 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. • 31 

are untaught and unfitted to assist in, or direct the labors of the farm. 
The moral effect of this common but sad result is equally disastrous 
and pitiable both in father and son. It is a state of things which 
must be cured : if not, it will act like a corrosive ulcer. We must 
combine the cultivated intellect and social amenities of mental refine- 
ment, with the strong practical usefulness and sound virtues of the 
agriculturist, who giving the sweat of his brow receives from Pro- 
vidence such bounties as are now stored around us in this building,* 
and spread upon these tables for the daily support of all human life, 
and who dispenses them to all other classes. 

If these be not thus wedded, this great agricultural state of Penn- 
sylvania must remain, as now, with the balance of influence and power 
in the hands of comparatively few ; for I may be allowed to repeat, 
with no other desire than to contribute to the future prosperity of our 
glorious Commonwealth, that the great body of our citizens, the great 
agricultural body, have not the power and the influence which they 
ought to have for the proper balance of power in our political and 
social relations. Something must be done to increase their power — 
how shall we do it ? Education will impart influence, but it must 
be such education as will lead to the desired end ; it is self-evident 
that it is no education unless it is a fit one. Science, art, and labor 
must be combined. Here is our want. At present we have no suit- 
able college in existence. Whatever may have been done in Europe 
under the greater pressure of necessity we have no such institutions 
as yet, to which we can have access. 

Now the institution we are striving to establish, at the earliest 
possible period, is intended to supply this great social, political, 
moral, and economical want. And while it improves the mind of 
the agriculturist, and trains his hands, it will do both at less expense 
than a purely literary training can be obtained for. Thus, while 
reducing costs very greatly, it will educate better and fit for every 
business relation of practical life. 

We estimate that $100 per annum will fully cover all expenses 
for board and tuition, as we are instituting upon the farm different 
branches of culture adapted for exercise, and to illustrate fully the 
entire theory and practice of cultivation, and at the same time such 
as will afford pleasant and profitable, moderate, regular, and varied 
labor to the students. Provision will be made for ample and ex- 
tensive mathematical training and engineering practice. All the 
branches of Natural science will be fully illustrated and taught. 
Moral and Social science, and all the arts of practical life, excluding 
nothing but what is exclusively literary as the acquisition of the dead 
and foreign languages. We have started — there must now be for 
us no such word as fail. Our Legislature has done much to aid us ; 

* At the dinner table in the barn. 



32 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

we have much to do ourselves. Let us ask ourselves, each one of 
us, how much do we owe to society, and especially to the great class 
that forms its hasis. Let there be no adverse feelings founded on 
local preference. What motive could there be to induce those who 
examined and determined the locality of this school to do else than 
right ? With the approval of my associates, I could gladly have 
taken it into my own dear valley of Cumberland, but in the exercise 
of a sound and clear judgment (I speak for all as an inconsiderable 
one only) the Board having looked over all proposed lands and con- 
sidered all circumstances, believed the one chosen to be the best. 
It is possible that we were in fault, yet I have ever believed the 
selection made combined more advantages than any other offered, 
and I ask for myself and associates the credit at least of honest mo- 
tives, and of all to consider how many of the most essential advan- 
tages of soil, surface, exposure, healthfulness, and centrality, are 
combined in the ground we have met upon. 

For a great common good, and in a spirit of mutual confidence, 
let personal feelings not enter into our consideration; but let us all 
agree to the conclusion that what is done is best. I must only 
detain you with a brief detail of our financial strength. We have 
received from our State Society $10,000, from citizens of Centre 
County $10,000, from the State $25,000. From the estate of the 
late Elliot Cresson $5,000, making in all $50,000. To complete 
the buildings and open the institution we must have $50,000, and 
this is provided for, if one half of the amount be raised by indi- 
viduals. We shall then have $100,000 with, which we can then 
start this instiiution into active and useful operation at a rate 
of charge to each student of not over $100 per annum. All 
the influence and industry we can exercise will go into the ac- 
count, and if our judgment and management be approved, we 
shall not be allowed in this great Commonwealth to fail of such 
an object. The community understanding our aims, will not let 
us fail. We must obtain the $25,000 by individual contribu- 
tion, and I say for myself only because I am urged to say it, that 
I will be one of ten to give $1,000 each towards making up that 
amount." 

The speaker took his seat amidst the approbation of his 
auditors. Gen. James Irvin offered to be one of ten to sub- 
scribe $1,000, 

Hon. James Miles pledged $1,000 for Erie and Craw- 
ford Counties. Hon. James Burnside thought Clinton 
County would be good enough for $1,000, and Cambria for 
$500. Hon. George Boal pledged Centre County for $1,000 
in addition to the $10,000 already subscribed. General 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 33 

Snodgrass pledged Allegheny County for $1,000. H. N. 
McAllister offered to be one of twenty to give $500 each. 
Judge Hale arose and said : 

Centre County has raised $10,000, and one of her distinguished 
citizens has given an equal value in land, and has just pledged 
another $1,000, followed by other conditional pledges from other 
of her citizens for yet another $1,500. 

The President of this meeting, who has given so freely of his 
valuable time and abilities to all the details of the enterprise at 
the greatest sacrifice, has offered yet a sum of $1,000 : now cannot 
we raise the balance of the sum wanted on the spot? I will pledge 
myself to raise $500 more, if we can thus accomplish this. Let 
us hear from all the counties represented. As to the location of 
the school, it must necessarily be located somewhere. It has been 
located here, and we are sensible of the advantages it brings to us, 
and have contributed very nearly one-fourth of the entire estimate 
of 100,000. Yet all other counties will have an equal right with 
us to send pupils, and we feel that we have a right to ask other 
counties to aid in the consummation of this great work of the 
State." 

Dr. J. R. Eshelman then pledged Chester County for 
$500 ; John Strohm pledged $500 for Lancaster. Several 
other pledges were given for all that could be done in other 
counties. 

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 

Unfortunately for the funds of the school many of the 
above pledges were not redeemed, and the general depres- 
sion of business which followed the financial panic of 1857, 
together with the failure of crops in some of the counties, 
almost put a stop to raising subscriptions. In the mean- 
time, the work on the college buildings was progressing, 
and the constant drafts on the treasury warned the busi- 
ness committee that some effort must be made to obtain 
subscriptions. 

At two successive meetings of the Board at this time, 
December, 1857, and March, 1858, there was not a quorum 
of members present, and the business committee were to 
a certain extent left to their own resources in order to sup- 
ply the constant demands upon the Treasury. 



34 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

CONTRACTOR UNABLE TO FULFIL HIS CONTRACT. 

It now became more and more apparent that the con- 
tractors would be unable to comply with the conditions of 
their contract, as it was evident that they had taken it at 
a price that would do little more than meet half the ex- 
pense involved in complying with the contract, and being 
without means beyond those afforded by the Trustees, and 
the latter having an empty Treasury to draw upon, the 
prospects of the school were anything but flattering. 

At this time there is no doubt the work would have 
been suspended, and the Pennsylvania Agricultural College 
would soon, like a great many others in the United States, 
have been known only by the half finished works that 
marked the spot where it was intended to stand, had it 
not been for the indomitable perseverance and unremit- 
ting labor of the business committee, and more especially 
of H. N. McAllister, the local Trustee, in looking after. its 
affairs. 

In addition to the $10,000 that the latter gentleman 
guarantied for Centre County, in case the College were 
located upon the farm of Gen. James Irvin, he received 
nearly $6,000 by subscription from others in the county, to 
which he added $500 from his own pocket. He also visited 
a number of other counties, called meetings, and raised 
collections himself, or secured the services of others in doing 
so. 

During all this time the general control of the work on 
the college buildings devolved upon him, and to meet the 
demand of the contractor he was obliged to advance several 
thousand dollars from his own pocket, trusting to raise it 
by subscriptions. The time to perform all this labor for 
the school was taken from a professional life already over- 
crowded with professional d uties. It was done gratuitously, 
and all the expenses involved in travelling to collect money, 
hold meetings, or do other labor for the school were paid 
from his own pocket. It has been remarked that if for 
no other purpose, it were sufficient to locate the college in 
Centre County to secure the aid of a laborer so efficient and 
self-sacrificing in its behalf as the present local trustee. 
The thirteenth meeting of the Board of the Trustees con- 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 35 

vened at the Farm School on the 16th of June, 1858. 
There were present Messrs. McAllister, Eyre, Hiester, Miles, 
Elwyn, and Watts, President. The President, as Chairman 
of the Business Committee, reported that they had con- 
tracted with General Irvin for the additional 200 acres 
of land adjoining the 200 he had donated. The commit- 
tee further reported upon the progress of the building, 
stating the impossibility of the contractors being able to 
finish it. Whereupon they were vested, by the board, 
with power to act as the emergency might demand in order 
to secure the erection of the building. 

H. N. McAllister, having been appointed by the Presi- 
dent to solicit donations, reported that Centre County had 
subscribed $5,769 64, but that a part of this was required 
to make up the $10,000 which he, with Messrs. Curtin 
and Hale, had paid over as the subscription of Centre 
County in order to secure the location of the College; he, 
however, expressed his willingness to allow this balance 
on the $10,000 to remain unpaid, that the entire sum just 
collected, might be made available for securing an equal 
amount from the state, in accordance with the act of ap- 
propriation of 1857, provided that the amount yet due them 
from the Centre County subscription, be paid from other 
subscriptions, that might be obtained after all the money 
available from the State was obtained. This proviso 
was approved by the Board. The financial affairs of the 
institution now presented the most serious problem for the 
solution of the Board. 

EMBARRASSMENT OF THE BOARD. 

The funds were exhausted, the contractors were about to 
fail, and the work of the basement walls not yet completed, 
while the country was prostrated, under the influence of 
the financial crisis of the preceding year. It was resolved 
to present an address to the people of the State, setting 
forth the financial difficulties of the Board, and to appoint 
suitable persons to solicit donations from the people; and to 
meet the emergencies of the present, it was resolved to raise 
$5,000 upon the individual note of some of the members of 
the Board. Under such circumstances many corporations 



36 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

would have at once broken up in despair, but the trustees 
of the Farm School, determined not to yield to these diffi- 
culties, made arrangement for the admission of pupils on 
the assumption that the building must be prepared for them. 
The conditions of admission and course of instruction were 
settled upon, and it is not a little remarkable, that at that 
time, and under these difficulties, and relying wholly upon 
their judgment of what the college should be, but without 
any experience as to how it would meet the wants of the 
Agricultural Community, they laid down the general plan 
of operation for it, which has since been followed out, and 
is now proving successful. It was decided to carry up 
about one-third of the building, and complete it for the 
admission of about 100 students, leaving the other two- 
thirds with only the basement walls up. 

PROSPECT OF FAILURE. 

At this period, such seemed to be the hopelessness of 
completing the building that those who did not appreciate 
the importance of doing so, nor understand the devotion of 
the Trustees, and more especially of the building commit- 
tee, to the cause they had espoused, did not think it ever 
could be completed; and their policy of commencing a 
building sufficiently large to organize an Agricultural 
College was severely condemned, while a small school 
with an elementary course of instruction was pointed out as 
what could and should have been founded. To add to the 
discouragement of the members of the Board, who were 
determined the work should not stop, one of the most pro- 
minent members who had labored hard for the cause from 
the beginning resigned, but his place was supplied at the 
next annual meeting of the delegates, September 1st, 1858. 

At the fifteenth meeting of the Board, December 8th, 1858, 
it was resolved that the school be opened for students on 
the 16th of February, 1859, and measures were taken to 
apprize the people of the Commonwealth of the fact, as 
also of the terms and form of admission. As already re- 
marked, it had become evident that Turner and Natcher 
would be unable to comply with the conditions of the con- 
tract. The work of preparing the building had therefore 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 37 

passed into the hands of the Building Committee, and they 
were urging it on with all possible speed to have the build- 
ing ready for pupils at the appointed time ; and to meet 
the expense involved, in going on with the work, five of the 
Trustees subscribed $500 from their own pockets, which 
enabled them to draw a corresponding amount from the 
State, and they further authorized the President of the 
Board, to secure by loan an amount sufficient to finish and 
furnish the part to be prepared for the pupils. 

OPENING SCHOOL. 

At the appointed time, February 16th, 1859, the school 
was opened under the control of the following Faculty and 
Professors. 

Wm. G. Waring, who had been superintending the farm, 
garden, and nursery for some time previous was now ap- 
pointed General Superintendent of the College, and Pro- 
fessor of Horticulture; S. Baird, Professor of Mathematics; 
R. C. Allison, Professor of English Literature ; J. S. Whit- 
man, A. M., Prof, of Natural Science. Prof. Baird resigned 
May 18th, 1859, and the Board at that time assembled, 
appointed Prof. David Wilson in his stead. Over 100 pupils 
had engaged places, and sixty-nine were present on the 
first day of opening; during the session 119 students were 
entered, though there were never more than about 100 
present at any one time, owing to the dismission and ex- 
pulsion of some and the withdrawal of others. The school 
was opened under innumerable difficulties and disadvan- 
tages. The buildings were only partially finished, and in 
the absence of the intended dining-room and kitchen a 
board shantee, which could neither be kept warm in cold 
nor dry in wet and stormy weather, was used to cook and 
eat in. Proper apartments for museums, laboratories, and 
recitation rooms were wanting. The farm was yet rough, 
and the lumber and materials for mason and brick work 
for the completion of the building, were piled round in 
shapeless masses on all sides of the latter, rendering it 
almost impossible to get about it, and presenting a most 
forlorn aspect to the students, who first entered the college, 
4 



38 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

through the well tramped mud of the breaking up of the 
winter frosts. 

The limited number of students that could be admitted 
did not allow of the employment of a sufficient number of 
professors, teachers, and assistants to admit of a proper 
division of labor among them, and hence an efficient 
organization of the institution was not possible. The un- 
precedented nature of the experiment made it necessary to 
intrust it to inexperienced hands; and although every pre- 
caution was taken to admit none but students of the very 
highest character, yet unfortunately, experience soon 
proved that this flock was not without its " black sheep." 
Add to all this the general sentiment of superficial ob- 
servers, that the building never could be finished, and the 
unhappy state of feeling produced in the minds of many in 
consequence of pecuniary losses they sustained by the 
failure of the first contractor, and bear in mind the state of 
the finances of the Board of Trustees as already pointed 
out, and we have some of the difficulties encountered by 
the Farm School on first coining into existence. 

FACULTY FOR 1860. 

At the nineteenth meeting of the Board of Trustees, 
held at the College, December 7th, 1859, the following 
faculty were nominated, and instructions given to pre- 
pare the first annual catalogue. 

EVAN PUGH, Ph. D. & F. C. S., President. 

DAVID WILSON, A. M., Vice President. 

WM. G. WARING, General Superintendent of the Hor- 
ticultural Department. 

J. S. WHITMAN, A. M., Professor of Botany. 

R. C. ALLISON, A. M., Professor of English Literature. 

In view of the financial affairs of the Board, and the 
unfinished state of the building, the Rev. Thomas P. 
Hunt was appointed to solicit donations for the College. 
Mr. Hunt entered upon his duties with characteristic 
earnestness, but it was soon found that the country had not 
yet sufficiently recovered from the financial crisis of 1857, 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 39 

to make it possible to raise money in this way, and the 
project was soon abandoned. 

The Session of 1859 closed about the middle of De- 
cember, and the Trustees then thought that the success 
which had attended the effort under the difficulties, met 
in making it, would induce the Legislature to afford means 
to complete the buildings. Accordingly, a bill asking 
money for this purpose was placed in the hands of one of 
the members, to be brought before the House of Repre- 
sentatives. The bill, however, never reached its second 
reading, and the College, incumbered with debt, and its 
building unfinished, was left to struggle through another 
year, dependent in part for its existence upon the energy 
and enterprise and liberality of those who had already 
sacrificed so much to bring it thus far. 

The Session of 1860 was inaugurated with a full school, 
while several who applied from other states, could not be 
admitted. The increased experience of the faculty in 
managing it, and the greater experience of the students 
in performing their duties, gave additional hope of the 
ultimate success of the College, if its buildings only could 
be completed; on the other hand it became equally evi- 
dent that if they were not completed, the school must 
stop, and all the property accumulated be sacrificed to 
meet its debts. 

FINAL APPEAL TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Successive appeals to private individuals had failed to 
secure the funds required. Being a State Institution, and 
not a denominational school^ it had not the advantage of 
being able to interest any special sect in its favor. But on 
the other hand being an Agricultural School, devoted to 
the Agricultural interests of an Agricultural State, and 
having originated in an effort of the State Agricultural 
Society, and having been aided in its origin by State ap- 
propriations, it became most appropriately an object for 
State patronage, therefore, at a meeting of the Board of 
Trustees, held at the College, December 5th, 1860, it was 

Resolved, That the sum of $50,000 was necessary to 



40 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

finish the .College Buildings, and that an application be 
made to the Legislature at its approaching session to make 
an appropriation of that sum for this purpose. 

Measures were at once taken to secure the passage of 
an Act, making this appropriation. In the Senate, the 
interests of the school would be ably represented by Colonel 
Gregg, who had labored so efficiently for the passage of 
the first appropriation, and in the House, where the great- 
est difficulty was anticipated, the College was fortunate in 
having the aid of the local member, Wm. C. Duncan, 
whose intelligent appreciation of the necessities of agri- 
cultural practice, and the financial difficulties of the In- 
stitution, made him an able advocate in its favor. 

A few days after the close of the Session of 1860, the 
bill to appropriate $50,000, was read in place by Wm. 
C. Duncan, in the House of Representatives, and referred 
to the Committee of Ways and Means. The Trustees of 
the College appeared before that Committee, and stated 
the aims, objects, financial difficulties, and necessities of 
the School. After the usual delays and hinderances com- 
mon to legislation, the committee rendered a unanimous 
report in favor of the bill, and it only remained to bring 
it up for a second reading, to test the feeling of the House 
upon its merits. 

In the meantime, Mr. Duncan had espoused the cause 
of the bill with an earnestness, and efficiency of action, 
and honesty of purpose which satisfied all its friends, that 
they were very fortunate in being able to intrust it to 
his hands. His honesty and uprightness of character, 
and personal acquaintance with all the leading friends of 
the school, and his knowledge of its necessity were suffi- 
cient guarantees to his fellow members, that the money 
asked for was needed for the purpose stated, and not for 
aggrandizement of individual or local interests. 

Several of the County Agricultural Societies sent in 
letters and resolutions to the Representatives, urging the 
passage of the bill, while prominent friends of agricultu- 
ral reform, from all parts of the State, either by letters 
to members in the Legislature, or by visiting Harrisburg 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 41 

and by talking with them themselves, advocated the passage 
of the bill, and the political press, without regard to party, 
with singular unanimity united with the agricultural press 
in urging the claims of the bill upon the Representatives 
of the people of our great Agricultural State. The bill 
was finally brought to its second reading, when it passed 
with an overwhelming majority. A vote to suspend the 
rules which forbid the reading of the same bill twice in 
the same day, was carried and 

The bill was read the third time, and thus passed the 
House. 

Col. Gregg had always assured the Trustees that if 
the bill passed the lower House, he would have no diffi- 
culty in securing its passage through the Senate, — there- 
fore, a few days after it passed the House, it passed the 
Senate, and received the signature of the Governor, and 
became a law. 

Thus a great Agricultural State was saved the disgrace 
of allowing an Agricultural College it had attempted to 
found, to break up in the act of being founded, and $150, 
000 worth of property that was collected for this purpose, 
was saved from being sacrificed, and on the other hand, 
our old Commonwealth has succeeded in bringing the first 
Agricultural School in the United States into successful 
operation. 

Amongst those not members of the House who con- 
tributed to this result, the name of Hon. James T. Hale 
deserves especial mention as having by his great influence 
as a public man, and a member of the Board of Trustees, 
done much for the passage of the bill; as also did all the 
members of the Board, and most particularly the business 
committee, who were prepared at all times to leave their 
own pressing duties as professional men at home, to attend 
to the advocacy of the bill while before the Legislature. 

The bill passed the Senate on the 10th of April, 1861. 
Fort Sumter was bombarded about this time, and the 
country was in the midst of the excitement consequent 
thereon. 

The Board met at the school, May 1st, 1861, and not- 
withstanding the disturbed state of the country, caused 



42 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

by the rebellion, determined to proceed at once to the 
completion of the building. 

COMPLETION OF THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 

To this end, Messrs. Watts, McAllister and Pugh were 
appointed a committee to examine the plans for the build- 
ing, and to make such modifications of them, as might 
seem advisable, and to take measures to have the walls up 
and the building roofed by the first of the following No- 
vember. 

The committee at once advertised for sealed proposals 
to do the whole, or any part of the work, of putting up 
the building. 

On opening the proposals thus obtained, that of George 
W. Tate of Bellefonte, was considered the most reasonable, 
and the committee at once articled with him to complete 
" the entire building, excepting some items specified, for the 
sum of $41,500 — the building to be under roof by the first 
of November, 1861, and to be entirely completed by the 
first of December, 1862. 

The work of erecting the building was at once com- 
menced, and has been steadily progressing up to the 
present time, September, 1862. 

THE THIRD SESSION. 

The third session of the College was opened under pecu- 
liarly unfavorable circumstances. The country was in 
that ominous calm that preceded the storm of rebellion, 
which has since broken upon it. The work of finishing 
the College had been so long delayed, that the public began 
to doubt the probability of its being finished at all, and it 
was evident to all, if the buildings were not finished, the 
School must go down. 

Many doubted its ability to survive the third session, 
and some parents even hesitated to pay money in advance 
for tuition, lest it should be lost by the school being broken 
up. There were, however, many earnest friends of the 
movement, who never doubted even, at this time, the 
ultimate success of the school, and the timely action of the 
Legislature tended to restore the confidence of those who 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 43 

had before doubted. But the result of this inauspicious 
opening of the college was that for the first time it was not 
filled with students, although eighty-eight were recorded 
in the third annual catalogue, published at the close of the 
session. 

This session will always be interesting to the students 
of the college as being that at the close of which the first 
class was graduated. This was also the first class that 
graduated at an Agricultural College in the United States, 
and they graduated upon a higher scientific educational 
standard than is required at any other Agricultural College 
in the world. They had completed their course in three 
} 7 ears, owing to their having entered the third class the first 
year. In 1858, the class had fifty-five students in it, and 
in 1861 it was reduced to seventeen, and only eleven of 
these completed their course, passed their examination, 
and took the degree of Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture. 
The following are the names. 

James Miles, Jr., Erie Co.; A. C. Church, Luzerne Co.; 
J. W. Eckman, Lebanon; Samuel Holliday, Erie Co.; E. 
P. McCormick, Clinton Co.; M. S. Lytle, Huntingdon; 
John N. Banks, Juniata; J. D. Isett, Huntingdon; L. C. 
Troutman, Philadelphia; C. A. Smith, Berks; C. E. Trout- 
man, Philadelphia. 

The present session was opened on the 19th of February, 
1862, and is now more than half completed ; the college is 
full, notwithstanding the disturbed state of the country, 
and all its affairs are working more satisfactorily than 
they have ever done before. 

CHANGE OF NAME. 

The name " Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania," 
originated partly in a feeling that farmers might be pre- 
judiced against the word "college" as that of a place where 
boys only contracted idle habits, and partly with the idea of 
founding a small institution, with a limited course of instruc- 
tion, similar to the Agricultural Schools of Europe, which 
are subordinate to the Agricultural Colleges there. 

But the school, on being organized, adopted a course of 
instruction in mathematics and the natural sciences, more 



44 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

extensive than that in any Agricultural College of Europe, 
and a correspondingly longer time devoted to study was 
required for graduating. Its organization had been upon 
a collegiate basis from the beginning, and the Trustees only 
awaited the time in which they would be able to complete 
its buildings, to change its name. Therefore, at the soli- 
citation of the faculty, and on the recommendation of the 
President of the Board of Trustees, H. N. McAllister made 
application to the Centre County Court, at its spring 
session, 1862, for a change of name, to the "Agricultural 
College of Pennsylvania." The Court granted the request, 
and the name as changed was approved by the Board at 
its next meeting convened at Harrisburg, May 6th, 1862. 
At this meeting it was resolved that a committee of three* 
be appointed to prepare a history of the origin of the Ag- 
ricultural College of Pennsylvania, as also to state its aims, 
object, progress, and present condition and prospects. In 
accordance with this resolution, the present pamphlet has 
been prepared. 

The history of the College here closes in the events of 
the active present to which attention will next be drawn. 
The secret of its success, it will have been seen, is to be 
found in the indomitable perseverance of a small number 
of public-spirited men, who were determined it should not 
fail. 

As shown by the foregoing historical sketch, the Agri- 
cultural College of Pennsylvania has been in operation for 
four years. Its organization and means of accomplishing 
the object for which it was founded, have been very im- 
perfect, owing to unfinished buildings and want of funds. 
Yet it has received a degree of patronage unprecedented in 
the history of Agricultural Colleges. It has been filled 
with students every session, except that of 1861, and many 
have applied from other states, who could not be admitted. 
With this success amidst the difficulties of the past, there 
can be no doubt of its ultimate success in the future, now 
that its college buildings are completed and the Agricul- 
tural College bill has passed Congress. 

* This Committee consisted of the Hotis. Fred. Watts and A. 0. Hiester, with 
myself. It is due to these gentlemen, to state that their professional duties pre- 
vented them from giving special attention to the work, and, therefore, for any in- 
accuracies or imperfections in it, I alone am responsible. E. Pdgh. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 45 



After what has already been said it would seem superflu- 
ous to dwell here upon the object of this institution, yet a 
few words in detail, may throw light upon what has been 
said. The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania has for 
'its object, to associate a high degree of intelligence with the 
practice of Agriculture and the industrial arts, and to seek 
to make use of this intelligence in developing the agricul- 
tural and industrial resources of the country, and pro- 
tecting its interests. It proposes to do this by several 
means. 

1st. As & purely educational institution, its course of in- 
struction is to include the entire range of the Natural 
Sciences ; but will embrace most especially those that have 
a practical bearing upon the every day duties of life, in 
order to make the student familiar with the things immedi- 
ately around him, and with the powers of nature he employs, 
and with the material through the instrumentality of which, 
under the blessing of Providence, he lives and moves and 
has his being: and since agriculture more than any other 
of the industrial arts, is important to man, and since for the 
complete elucidation of its principles more scientific know- 
ledge is required than for all other industrial arts combined, 
it follows that this should receive by far the highest degree 
of attention. The course of instruction is thorough, so 
that it not only affords the student the facts of science, 
but it disciplines his mind to habits of thought, and en- 
bles him fully to comprehend the abstract principles in- 
volved in the practical operations of life. In doing this it 
is not deemed possible to educate every agriculturist, arti- 
san, mechanic, and business man in the state, but to send 
out a few students educated in the college course that they, 
by the influence of precept and example, may infuse new 
life and intelligence into the several communities they 
enter. A single individual who is thoroughly educated in 
the principles and the practice of an art, followed by a com- 
munity, will often exert a more salutary influence upon 
the practice of this art, by the community, than would re- 



46 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

suit from sending the whole community to a school of lower 
order than that which he attended. A single practical 
school of the highest order in Paris (the Ecole Polytechnique) 
during the last generation made France a nation celebrated 
alike for profound philosophers, great statesmen, able ge- 
nerals and military men, and civil engineers. If one high 
school is established, subordinate schools affording the 
elementary education of the latter, will follow in due time.' 

2d. As a Practical Institution the Agricultural College 
of Pennsylvania has adopted the fundamental principle, 
that whatever is necessary for man to have done, it is 
honorable for man to do, and that the grades of honor at- 
taching to all labor, are dependent upon the talent, the care 
and fidelity exhibited in performing it. It is further con- 
sidered essential as a part of a student's education that he be 
taught the practical application, in the field and laboratory, 
of the principles he studies in the class-room ; and manual 
labor is also necessary for the preservation of health, and 
the maintenance of habits of industry. An incidental, but 
not unimportant result of the operation of these principles 
is a reduction of the cost of tuition by the value of the 
labor, so that the college can take students at the present 
very low rates of admission. 

All students without regard to pecuniary circumstances, 
are therefore obliged to perform manual labor as an essen- 
tial part of the college education and discipline and train- 
ing. In these respects consists a most essential difference 
between the idea associated with manual labor at this 
college, and that of all other attempts made heretofore to 
combine manual labor with study. Instead of the idea 
of poverty and want being associated with those who labor, 
that of laziness, worthlessness, and vagabond ry is asso- 
ciated with those who refuse to work efficiently, and the 
experience of the institution has already most assuredly 
shown that no young man, of whom there is any hope for 
future usefulness and efficiency in life at all, is insensible 
to the disgrace which thus attaches to lazy vagabonds who 
will work only as they are watched, and cheat their fellow 
students by refusing to do their share of the labor assigned 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 47 

them; and nothing is more conclusively settled than that 
those students who are the most studious and industrious 
in class, work the most efficiently and are the most trust- 
worthy in the performance of their daily three hours' work. 
3d. As mi Experimental Institution, the Agricultural 
College of Pennsylvania has an unbounded field for labor: 
The principles of Agricultural science, which shall ulti- 
mately constitute the subject of instruction in its class- 
rooms, are as yet only very imperfectly developed, and so 
great is the labor, expense, and time involved in making 
scientific agricultural experiments, that as yet little has 
been done in this direction. In the embarrassed condition 
of the finances of the college, it has not been possible to 
employ more scientific aid than was absolutely necessary 
to maintain a proper degree of efficiency in the educational 
and practical departments, nor could the other expenses re- 
quisite for extended scientific investigation be met with 
the means heretofore at the disposal of the Board; a few ex- 
periments upon the manufacture, preservation, and use of 
manures for the growth of crops, have, however, been in- 
augurated, while corresponding initiatory steps have been 
taken to experiment in other departments. It is most 
earnestly to be hoped that the recent appropriation of public 
lands by Congress to the state for agricultural purposes will 
afford means for the development of this department of the 
institution. The development of no other department 
would yield richer and more lasting results, or would confer 
more substantial benefit upon agricultural practice than 
this. It must not, however, be supposed that these results 
will manifest themselves at once, or that they will pay as 
experiments are being made : as well might the farmer ex- 
pect to reap his crop the day he sows his grain. They will, 
however, ultimately pay a thousand fold, as have the prac- 
tical application of the sciences of electricity, heat and 
optics, in the present day, paid for the half century of ap- 
parently unpractical, purely scientific investigations that 
led to the results now obtained through them. 

4th. As a means of protecting the industrial interests of the 
State, and most especially the agricultural interest, from the 
sale of bad or worthless or too high priced material (as 



48 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

manures, seeds, plants, and implements used in agricultural 
practice.) The only efficient means of accomplishing this 
object is to diffuse a higher degree of intelligence, and a 
more extended scientific knowledge amongst farmers : for so 
long as they are unacquainted with the principles of agri- 
cultural science, there will be quacks and impostors, and 
ignorant empiricists, who will prevail on them to in- # 
vest at least a little money in some new manure, seed, 
plants or other things, in the hope of realizing the large gain 
from it, that they are told will follow its use. Farmers 
have satisfactory means of testing agricultural implements, 
and they also can test seeds and plants with a good de- 
gree of satisfaction, but their methods of testing manures, 
chemical salts, guanoes, phosphates, poudrettes and other 
similar articles are very imperfect, and hence we find that 
the market is filled with worthless or very high priced 
manures, such as the farmer never would purchase, if he 
knew their composition and real value. A beginning has 
already been made towards making known the character of 
some of these manures, and although it is not expected that 
such work can be accomplished without opposition from 
parties interested in their sale, there is no doubt that before 
long all the bad manures will be driven from the market, and 
good ones, better and cheaper than the best and cheapest 
now sold, will take their place. In order to hasten this time 
farmers are requested and particularly urged to purchase no 
high priced artificial manures without having a legal gua- 
rantee with it, that it shall contain a specified amount of va- 
luable matter, equal in value to what is paid for the manure. 

It will require some years to fully develop and perfect 
all these departments, but the success which has thus far 
already attended the undertaking, and the progress that has 
already been made, afford the most satisfactory reason for 
hope that all that was anticipated by the founders of the 
institution, and much more, will ultimately be realized in it. 



THE COLLEGE 

AS IT WILL BE IN OPERATION NEXT YEAR, 1863. 



3d! 



The main college building is a stately and substantial 
edifice constructed of a silicious magnesian limestone of ex- 
cellent quality for building purposes. It consists of a cen- 
tral part and two wings connected with the latter by cur- 
tains. The central part and the wings facing on the same 
line, 234 feet long in front, and the central part resting on 
54 feet of the front line, and extending back 130 feet, the 
two wings each resting on 42 feet of the front line, and ex- 
tending back 81 feet. "While the two curtains ea,ch occupy 
48 feet on a line parallel to the front line, but ten feet 
back from it, the curtains extend back 56 feet. The 
building has five stories above a commodious basement. 
Each story has a large hall running from one end to the 
other, parallel with the front line, and extending through 
the middle of the curtains. From this hall, and at right 
angles with it, three halls extend back, one on the middle 
line of the central part, and one in each end wing; on each 
side of these halls, doors opens into dormitories, recitation- 
rooms, museums, &c. The entire building embraces 165 
dormitories, ten by eighteen square and nine to eleven feet 
high; a library room, twenty-four by forty-six; geological and 
mineralogical museum, twenty-four by forty-six ; anatomical 
museum, twenty-six by thirty -six; museum of agricultural 
productions, twenty-four by twenty; chemical laboratory 
for beginners, in basement twenty-four by fifty-six, and two 
laboratories on the first story, each twenty by forty, for more 
advanced students ; two lecture rooms, each twenty-six by 
thirty-four feet; four recitation rooms, each twenty by 
thirty-four feet ; and several smaller rooms for apparatus for 
special scientific investigations, and for store rooms; also a 
large room ^ghty feet long and twenty-eight feet wide for 



50 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

a chapel, and two rooms, each fifty-six feet long and twenty 
wide, for society halls ; and the entire back central part, 
forty-eight feet wide and eighty feet long, on first story, for 
kitchen and dining-room, and a room on the first story 
twenty by thirty-six feet, for an elementary or preparatory 
department, with an adjoining recitation-room, fifteen by 
twenty feet. The basement is mainly to be devoted to coal 
and hot-air furnaces, of which there will be sixteen of the 
largest size, from which heated air is conveyed in separate 
flues to every room in the building. All the rooms are also 
ventilated by flues extending to the top of the building 
from each room. The basement also contains the laboratory 
abov? noted, in addition to store-rooms, bake-house, and 
kitchen for culinary department, and three other laborato- 
ries for the rougher kinds of scientific work. The above, in 
addition to two reception parlors, and commodious apart- 
ments for one professor with family, and for the family of 
the culinary department, constitute the extent of internal 
arrangement of the buildings. For commodiousness, com- 
pleteness of detail, and stability of construction these build- 
ings are not equalled by the buildings of any Agricultural 
College in the world. 

The other buildings embrace, 

1st, An excellent double-decked barn, fifty -nine by 
seventy-five feet, and constructed upon the most approved 
plan, with wagon shed, corn crib, water cisterns, &c. 

2d. A large hog pen, with a granary over it, twenty- two by 
eighty-three feet, including also a complete slaughter-house. 

3d. A blacksmith shop, twenty by twenty-eight feet, with 
all the appliances for doing smith work. 

4th. A carpenter shop and tool house, sixteen by forty- 
four feet. 

5th. Wash house. This building is sixteen by forty feet, 
situated near the barn, and is fitted up for washing the 
students' clothes. 

6th. Two frame dwelling-houses, one twenty-eight by 
twenty-eight feet, now occupied by the carpenter and Su- 
perintendent of the washing department, and the other, 
thirty-two by forty -four, occupied by the professor of botany; 
in connexion with the latter house is a small gfeen-house, 
with choice native and foreign plants. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 51 



The full course embraces four years, but students can 
enter any part of the course dependent upon their degree of 
advancement. 

The first year the Student studies Arithmetic, Ele- 
mentary Algebra, Horticulture, Elementary Anatomy and 
Physiology, Physical Geography and Elementary Astro- 
nomy, English Grammar and Composition, Elocution, His- 
tory, Practical Agriculture and the details of management 
on the College Farm. Students, who have mastered the 
common school branches, will be prepared to enter the 
classes of this year. In order to be fully prepared for it, 
they are advised to pay particular attention to Grammar, 
Geography, Reading, Writing, Spelling and Arithmetic. 

Second year — Advanced Algebra and Geometry, Gene- 
ral Chemistry, Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, Zoo- 
logy and Veterinary, Geology, Paleontology, Practical Agri- 
culture and Horticulture, Logic and Rhetoric. Students 
who are sufficiently far advanced in Algebra, Geometry 
and English Grammar, are admitted to this class, without 
respect to the other studies of the first year. 

Third year — Surveying, Navigation, Levelling, Drafting 
with the use of Instruments, Analytical Geometry, Trigono- 
metry, Elementary Calculus, Natural Philosophy, Chemi- 
cal Analysis, Veterinary Surgery, Entomology, Agricultu- 
ral Botany, Practical Agriculture and Pomology, Political 
and Social Economy. Students who have mastered Davies' 
Legendre and Trigonometry, and who possess a corre- 
sponding degree of knowledge of the English branches 
generally, and who have gone through a good academical 
text book course of Natural Science, are admitted to this 
class. 

Fourth year. — Analytical Geometry, Differential and 
Integral Calculus, Engineering, Drafting, Mechanical Draw- 
ing, Quantitative Chemical Analysis, Veterinary Phar- 
macy, Gardening, Agricultural accounts and Farm Ma- 
nagement, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. 

The abi^ty to enter this year's courses, is dependent so 



52 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

much on the Students having gone through the studies of the 
preceding year, and the latter being peculiar to an Agri- 
cultural College, of which there are no others in the coun- 
try, no students prepared to enter it are likely to arfply. 
Students who successfully complete this course of studies, 
and pass a satisfactory examination, and prepare a disser- 
tation of not less than fifteen pages of foolscap paper, upon 
some scientific or literary subject, (if scientific, it must em- 
brace an original investigation) approved by the faculty, 
and whose general standing in the school shall have been 
good, shall upon the recommendation of the faculty, have 
the degree of Bachelor of Scientific and Practical Agricul- 
ture, B. & A. conferred upon them by the Board of Trus- 
tees of the College. 



Fifth tear.*— Students w T ho after having taken the de- 
gree of B. S. A. shall devote three years to Practical Agri- 
culture, or to any intellectual pursuit or profession, shall 
take the degree of Master of Scientific or Practical Agri- 
culture, M. S. A., or, if they remain another year in the 
Institution, and devote their time to special investigation, 
they can take this degree at the terminatien of the year. 

Private Laboratories with means for investigation, will 
be fitted up for graduates of this or any other College, in 
which to pursue prolonged, special, scientific investigation. 
Graduates of Literary Colleges, who may only have pur- 
sued an ordinary text book course in science, and who wish 
to devote some time more especially to science, in connex- 
ion with agricultural practice, can take any part of the 
above course, or devote themselves to scientific investiga- 
tion with the graduates of the fifth year, at the same time 
they are familiarizing themselves with the details of agri- 
cultural practice on the farm. 

SCIENTIFIC EXCURSIONS. 

The valley and neighboring mountains afford rare oppor- 
tunities for botanical study ; and for Physical Geography, 
Paleontology and Geology. This district is unsurpassed 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 53 

by any other in the country. The great Synclinal and 
Anticlinal Palreozic waves east of the Alleghenies, are 
here shown in every variety of position and angle of inclina- 
tion, while good outcrops of nearly all the subdivisions of the 
palaezoic rocks from the lowest to the coal measure, are to be 
seen. Frequent excursions are made with classes to observe 
them. 

Mathematics. — A transit instrument of first quality for 
field work, ordinary surveying apparatus, with compass, for 
the use of Students, and Mathematical figures and forms for 
illustrating Geometrical and Crystallographic principles. 

Natural Philosophy. — Large Electrical Machine, Air- 
Pumps, Magnetic Machine, Galvanic Batteries, an exten- 
sive collection of apparatus for illustrating the principles 
of Optics, Statics, Dynamics, Mechanics, Pneumatics, &c, 
and opportunities are offered for Students learning to use 
this apparatus themselves. 

Chemistry. — A large collection of apparatus adapted to 
the lecture room and class recitations, for illustrating prin- 
ciples by experiments; also, a large Chemical Laboratory 
for beginners, and two other smaller Laboratories, each 
affording room for twenty-four more advanced Students, 
and several private Laboratories for special agricultural 
scientific investigation, all fitted up with the aids and 
appliances of the best German Laboratories, where the 
Students may pursue a thorough course of qualitative 
and quantitative analysis. Also, collections of Marls, 
artificial Manures, Limestones, Ores, Minerals, &c, from 
different localities of America and Europe. 

Botany. — Herbariums with extensive collections of Ame- 
rican and European plants; microscopes; a botanical 
garden and green house with native and foreign plants; 
nursery for practice in budding, grafting, &c. ; and anato- 
mical preparations for illustrating vegetable structures. 
The neighboring flora, embracing, as it does, the wide range 
of the valley and mountain soil, affords excellent opportu- 
nities for botanical excursions. 

Geology and Paleontology. — A collection of nearly six 
5 f 



54 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

thousand specimens of rocks, limestones, fossils, ores, &c., 
collected from all parts of the State, — together with a large 
collection from Europe. The neighborhood is one of the 
finest in the world for the study of the numerous subdivi- 
sions of the Palaeozoic rocks, from the "primal" to the 
"serai" of Rogers, in all of which the Student will have 
an opportunity of obtaining good specimens on geological 
excursions. 

Mineralogy and Crystallography. — A good collection, 
embracing specimens 'of all the ordinary minerals known, 
and many rare specimens; also, collections of models, of 
crystals, blow-pipe apparatus for mineral testing, &c. 

Practical Agriculture and Horticulture. — A farm of four 
hundred acres limestone land of excellent natural quality, 
coming into a good state of cultivation, with all the tools, 
implements, and machines for efficient farm practice, (see 
P. 60) Experiments with all the chemical elements of 
manures are carried out every session, for the purpose of 
illustrating the effect of each element alone and in combi- 
nation, as also experiments as to the time of planting and 
sowing seeds, and applying manures. Each Student "will 
have an opportunity of learning all the varied operations 
of ordinary farm, garden and nursery work, in connexion 
with the management of farm stock. A small nursery 
is especially devoted to practice for Students. There are 
also extensive vineyard, orchards, &c. 

Library. — An extensive collection of choice literary and 
scientific works, with maps, diagrams, and charts, are ac- 
cessible to the Student. 

Reading Room. — A comfortable room with all the lead- 
ing scientific and literary papers and journals, is set apart 
for a reading room in the building. 

Students' Societies. — There has been in the Institution 
from the time of its first organization, two Students' Socie- 
ties, the " Cresson Literary " and the " Washington Agri- ' 
cultural" Societies. Each Society has a large and com- 
modious room in which to hold its meetings, as also adjoin- 
ing rooms for libraries, all fitted up in appropriate style by 
the members of the respective Societies. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 55 

The character of the full Course of Studies is sufficiently 
indicated by what has just been given in relation to them. 
They are arranged to combine the study of Scientific prin- 
ciples with their practical application. 

The Student studies each of the several sciences purely 
as a scientific study, and then his attention is devoted to 
their practical application to agriculture and the industrial 
arts. For example, he studies the science of Chemistry 
in the class-room and laboratory, until he is able to analyze 
all the substances that will be presented to him, as ores, 
rocks and minerals for the miner; slags, fuel, metals and 
alloys for the furnace operator; residual products for the 
manufacturing chemist ; poisonous substances and abnormal 
secretions for the physician; adulterated articles for the 
consumer; and soils, marls, limestones, phosphates, guanoes, 
ashes, and all other articles used or consumed in agricul- 
ture for the farmer. 

His attention is then devoted to the agricultural bear- 
ings of the science. The manures found in the market 
are put in his hands. He learns by analyzing them, to 
distinguish between the good and bad, and his labors are 
so superintended that his results will be valuable to the 
farmers of the country when published. A large number 
of the analyses of manures found in the market, have 
already been published. A course of experiments upon 
the farm, with different kinds of manures for different 
plants, is also being carried out, from year to year, upon a 
large scale; while smaller plots, with suitable manures, are 
allotted to students, that they may repeat for themselves 
the experiments of the larger plot on a small scale, and 
thus familiarize themselves with the experimental pro- 
cesses by which, with the use of a few simple manures, 
they may ascertain what soils need to bring them to the 
highest degree of perfection — a desideratum once sought 
by soil analyses, but never attained by them. 

fartial JRctartiffc m& § mctial (&mx$t 

Experience has often demonstrated that many students 
who are incapable of making progress in mathematical 



56 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

studies, are well qualified for making successful students 
of the natural sciences. In order not to prevent those 
who may not be able to go through the higher mathema- 
tics of the full course, from enjoying the benefits of the 
natural sciences of the whole course, the "Partial Scien- 
tific and Practical Course" has been instituted. Students 
in this course will pursue the same studies as those of the 
full course, excepting analytical geometry, the differential 
and integral calculus, and the higher mechanics. 

This is designed for such students as may wish to remain 
for a limited period of time, in order to see the various 
arts and operations of the Farm, Garden and Nursery; 
and at the same time attend some of the classes in the Col- 
lege, and thus get a general idea of the subjects taught, with- 
out studying them with sufficient thoroughness to graduate. 

It is intended more particularly for such as may have be- 
come too old, or who are too delicate to take the entire 
course, but who wish to acquire special practical and gene- 
ral scientific knowledge, preparatory to going upon a farm. 



It will be seen from the above, that the Agricultural 
College of Pennsylvania is designed to occupy a place in 
our educational system, not heretofore occupied, rather 
than to come into competition with any Educational Insti- 
tutions already in existence. Its course of studies and 
practical operations are such that the student may, with 
profit, go through the last two years of the latter, either 
before or after he has completed the ordinary course of a 
literary College. 

$\nt\\\\ fMulmritte mut gwtafap£ *rf t\xt (Sarnie. 

The student has an opportunity of seeing all the practi- 
cal operations of the Farm, Garden and Nursery performed 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 57 

in the most approved manner, with the use of the best ma- 
nures, seeds, tools, and implements ; and, what is of more 
importance than this, he studies in the class-room and la- 
boratory, the scientific principles involved in all he does, 
and by becoming a scientific man, and analytical chemist, 
he is enabled to protect himself and others against the 
frauds and cheats that are continually being practised upon 
the uneducated, by dealers who are themselves either igno- 
rant of science, or who use it to impose upon the community. 
He learns how to study the geology, mineralogy, and che- 
mistry of the soil he cultivates, the botany of the plant he 
grows, and the laws of health and disease of the animals 
he uses. 

In a word, he is made thoroughly acquainted with the 
laws and phenomena of the material world with which he 
is in immediate contact, and about which farmers are most 
deplorably ignorant, but a knowledge of which is essential 
to their material success, or intellectual pleasure, in the- 
pursuit of the duties of rural life. 

To persons in cities who may wish their sons to become 
acquainted with the details of practical agriculture and 
science, and at the same time to cultivate the associations 
of rural life, either with a view to ultimately settling upon 
farms, or to increasing their capacity for business in town, 
by the associations thus cultivated with the habits of the 
country, the Agricidtural College of Pennsylvania affords 
excellent advantages. 

Persons wishing a good scientific and practical know- 
ledge of chemistry, with a view to druggistry, pharmacy, or 
the manufacture of chemical salts or manures, or pursuing 
the operations of mining, engineering, or any of the indus- 
trial arts, will find rare opportunities at a comparatively 
insignificant cost here. 

All will find the advantages of a most healthy and plea- 
sant location, in a neighborhood of good morals, free from 
the allurements of city or village life, and of an oppor- 
tunity for forming acquaintances with young men of re- 
spectability from all parts of the State. 



58 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

Qualifications. — Applicants must have attained the age 
of sixteen years, and present satisfactory certificates of 
good moral character and industrious habits ; and must also 
have a good knowledge of the elementary branches of the 
common school course. 

On entering, they must consider themselves pledged to 
conform to all the rules and regulations of the Institution, 
among which is the daily performance of three hours' 
manual labor. 

Expenses. — The sum of one hundred dollars must be 
paid in advance, on entering. This, with the labor above 
specified, will meet all expenses for boarding, room rent, 
tuition and washing for the term of ten months. 

Applications. — These may be made, either by addressing 
the President of the Institution directly, or by applying 
through the Agricultural Society of the county, in which 
the applicant resides. 

Certificates of Character. — These should be signed by 
the student's last teacher, the officers of the Agricultural 
Society of the county in which he resides, or by some other 
friend of moral and agricultural improvement. 

It is the earnest desire of the officers of the College to fill 
it with industrious, trustworthy and gentlemanly Students, 
whose sense of honor and appreciation of duty will be a gua- 
rantee that they will conform to its rules and regulations. 

It is their design to admit no other than such. 



In addition to the one hundred dollars above specified, 
Students will incur only the following expenses: 

Books and Stationery. — These will be supplied at city 
retail prices ; and will cost about eight dollars per term for 
the third and fourth classes, and ten dollars per term for 
the first and second classes. 

Apparatus. — The Students of the second class will re- 
quire about fifteen dollars' worth of apparatus, with which 
to study chemical analysis in the laboratory. This, when 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 59 

not damaged, will be taken back, if desired, at the close of 
the term, at a reduction of twenty-five per cent, on the 
first cost. With ordinary care, when the apparatus is re- 
turned, the cost of it per term will not exceed eight dollars. 

Incidental Expenses. — A slight incidental expense will be 
incurred for light, broom, towels, pitcher, wash basin, &c, 
in all not exceeding five dollars per annum. 

Economy. — As it is desirable to impress"*upon Students the 
necessity of forming habits of economy, parents are ad- 
vised not to be too liberal in giving them money; and 
they are recommended to deposit such sums as they may 
intend for their sons or wards in the hands of the Faculty, 
who will see that it is not spent improperly. 

Clothes. — Each Student should come prepared with an 
additional suit of clothes, of common material, for wearing 
while working on the farm. As warm weather will com- 
mence soon after the beginning of the term, he should also 
make arrangements, previous to entering, for a supply of 
summer clothing. 

Although not indispensable, some delicate Students have 
found an advantage in bringing with them a thick com- 
fortable for their beds during a few cold days just after the 
opening of College, or near its close. 

gtratwro. 

The Institution is located in Centre County, near the 
geographical centre of the State, at a distance of about 
twenty-one miles northeast of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
at Spruce Creek, and about the same distance northwest of 
it at Lewistown, and nine miles southwest of Bellefonte. 
Its site embraces a limestone soil of good natural quality, 
in a fine healthy district, affording a view of the beautiful 
Penn's Valley, in which it is situated, and which, at this 
point, is about ten miles wide. On the northwest, at a 
distance of about six miles, is seen the long range of the 
Bald Eagle Mountains, and beyond these the smoky sum- 
mits of the Alleghenies. In the opposite direction, at an 
equal distance, are seen the rolling ridges of the Seven 
Mountains; while to the southwest, as far as the eye can 



60 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

reach, extends the Perm's Valley, and in the opposite di- 
rection, at the distance of abont three miles, Nittany Moun- 
tain rises abruptly, and divides it into two valleys, Penn's 
and Nittany. With these mountains in the horizon, and 
an intermediate landscape of five to ten miles, interspersed 
with farms and timbered lands, few points in the State af- 
ford finer views than that from the cupola of the College 
buildings. . 

The school may be reached by students or visitors, 

1st. By the Pennsylvania Pail Road to Spruce Creek, 
Lewistown or Tyrone. From Spruce Creek a stage leaves 
on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, passing the school 
for Bellefonte, and returning on the intermediate days. 

Daily stages from Lewistown and Tyrone run to Belle- 
fonte, which latter place is accessible to the school by the 
Spruce Creek stage, or by livery accommodation. 

2d. By the Sunbury and Erie Railroad to Lock Haven, 
and thence by stage to Bellefonte and the school, as just 
mentioned. 

The Lock Haven and Tyrone Pail Poad which passes 
within six miles of the College, will, it is hoped, be finished 
before the opening of the next session. By it, Students 
can come to Bellefonte from either the Pennsylvania Cen- 
tral, or the Sunbury and Erie Pailroad. 

" |avMwg^patemi 

It is proposed here to notice some implements, machines, 
&c, not before noticed in our catalogue, that have been 
used upon the farm and are now to be seen on the premises. 

REAPING MACHINES. 

M-CormicKs Combined Self-raking Reaper and Mower. 
This machine did not arrive at the college in time to be 
tested as a mower, but two of the Trustees, Judge Watts 
and H. N. McAllister, Esqs., speak of it in the highest terms 
as a mower. As a reaper, we gave it a fair trial through 
several days in succession cutting heavy wheat, the prin- 
cipal part of which was lodged, and a great deal of it was 
very much tangled. It was drawn by four mules, in charge 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 61 

of one of our most responsible students, (J. P. Alexander, 
of Kishacoquillas) and did its work in the most satisfac- 
tory manner. The raker not only performs its work of re- 
moving the grain from the platform, but, by its well-adjusted 
motions, in front of the knife, and near the ground, it 
draws the tangled grain upon the knife, and removes it the 
instant it is cut off; thus letting the machine down beneath 
the lodged grain, should it by any means have got above 
some of it, as often happens with reapers when cutting 
grain in the direction in which it is lodged. The machine 
was witnessed in operation by a large number of farmers, 
many of whom owned other reapers, and all without excep- 
tion admitted that it was the most complete reaper they had 
ever seen. It is manufactured by McCormick & Brothers, 
Chicago, Illinois. Cost of the reaper and self-raker attached 
$175,00. 

Pennocles Iron Harvester. — This is also a combined 
reaper and mower. We used it for several days in our 
grass. The ground was very rough, and contained an un- 
due amount of stumps, roots, and stones, but the machine 
did its work quite satisfactorily ; it was drawn by two mules. 
As a reaper, it was also used to cut about twenty-five acres 
of wheat, which it did very well. It required three mules 
to draw it, and two students to attend to it. This machine 
is remarkable for the simplicity of its construction, and its 
consequent security against getting out of order, as also for 
its light draft. 

It is manufactured by Pennock & Brother, at Kennet 
Square, Chester County, Pa., and the cost of the machine 
is $135,00. 

Through the liberality of the respective manufacturers of 
the above machines, the college received them both as dona- 
tions, for which its officers would here extend their most 
cordial thanks. Each machine has its peculiar merits, and 
speaks well for the energy and enterprise of the manufac- 
turers. For large farms and extensive crops of grain, there 
can be no doubt that M'Cormick's reaper is unequalled by 
any other in the world. For smaller farms, and when the 
difference of cost would be an item of importance, the iron 



62 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

harvester would assert its claims. As a matter of some in- 
terest, it may be stated here that for every hundred feet 
which the machine advances across the field the M'Cor- 
rnick's reaper makes 264.7 strokes of 3.75 inches with its 
knives, making 82.7 feet of lateral motion to 100 of the 
longitudinal or forward motion of the cutting edge. 

The Iron Harvester in the same distance makes 132.8 
strokes of 6.6 inches each, making a total of 73.3 feet late- 
ral for 100 of horizontal motion. The lateral motion of the 
former is 12.8 per cent, greater than the other for the same 
velocity of the machines. 

Fans for Cleaning Grain. — One patented by Cyrus C. 
Grain, of Addison, Steuben County, N. Y., proves a very 
superior article; superior even to the climax machine which 
has proved an excellent one wherever used. It is adapted 
to cleaning clover seed, and to removing rye from wheat, 
and for all the purposes of a grain fan, it is worthy of the 
patronage of farmers. These fans are for sale at Miles- 
burg, Centre County, Pennsylvania. Price $28.00. 

Horse Hake. — This is a common iron-toothed horse-rake 
differing from others principally in having springs to keep 
the teeth down when in operation. It works well, and is 
manufactured by Fred. Bletz, of Columbia, Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania. 

An Ericsson Hot-Air Engine. — This is an engine with a 
piston thirteen inches in diameter, and eleven inches stroke. 
It is used to throw water through about 1,000 feet of pipe 
to an elevation of ninety feet. It has been in use for two 
years, and has worked very well, throwing water when in 
operation at the rate of from ten to sixteen barrels per hour, 
at an insignificant cost of fuel. It is very easily managed, 
any careful student being able to take entire care of it. 

Other Implements and Machines. — There is a large assort- 
ment of all kinds of farming implements, &c, on hand, 
such as are required for the extensive operations of a farm 
of 400 acres, with gardens, nurseries, hot-house. 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 63 

Conclusion. — It is the design of the officers of the insti- 
tution, as soon as practicable, to give attention to the raising 
of improved stock, and to experiments npon the value of 
different food under different circumstances for fattening 
purposes, as, also, to have suitable arrangements for the pre- 
servation and use of liquid manures. As yet these things 
have been neglected to attend to the more strictly edu- 
cational department of the institution. It is hoped, how- 
ever, that they will soon all receive their due amount of 
attention. 



CORRESPONDENCE. &c. 



The present session of the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania 
■will close on Wednesday, the 18th of December, 1862. 

The session for 1863 will open on Wednesday, the 22d of Febru- 
ary and close about the 19th of the following December. 

Persons wishing further particulars in reference to the College, will 
address Dr. E. Pugii, Agricultural College, Pa. 



